


Time's Up

by Arabesqueangel



Series: Time Stone [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Bruce Banner & Tony Stark Friendship, Eventual Loki/Tony Stark, Fix-It, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Implied/Referenced Torture, Loki (Marvel) Does What He Wants, Loki (Marvel) Feels, Loki (Marvel) Lives, Loki (Marvel) Needs a Hug, M/M, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Odin (Marvel)'s A+ Parenting, POV Loki (Marvel), POV Tony Stark, Slow Burn, Temporary Character Death, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-23
Updated: 2018-08-23
Packaged: 2019-06-14 22:04:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 17
Words: 52,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15398493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arabesqueangel/pseuds/Arabesqueangel
Summary: Starting with that disastrous bit of foreshadowing at the end of Thor:Ragnarok, Thanos attacks the Statesman, which is currently taking all the Asgardian refugees to Earth. Loki manages to escape with Banner and is transported to Earth, right into the hands one of his least favorite mortals, Dr. Stephen Strange. Now he's got to help get the Avengers assembled to save the Universe. There's just one problem: Loki is no hero. But he does have a plan, well more of an idea. But could anyone ever trust him with an Infinity Stone considering his history?Tony Stark is just going about his business when a wizard appears to him in the park and tells him the fate of the Universe is at stake. What's more, he's got Bruce with him! Dr. Banner just managed to escape Thanos with only one of the Asgardian refugees. Who should that be but none other than Loki, the Bag of Cats Would-Be King in the crazy helmet. Loki doesn't appear to be crazy anymore, but when a guy lies as easily as he breathes, how can you really tell what side he's on?





	1. Danger

**Author's Note:**

> This starts out during the Mid-Credits scene of Thor: Ragnorak and goes straight into Infinity War. The beginning stays pretty true to Infinity War, but as Loki starts to get involved in the plot, things take a big turn. You know, cause it's Loki and he does what he wants.

“Do you really think it’s a good idea to go back to Earth?” Loki asked, determinedly not looking at his brother. Yes, fine, his brother. After everything that had happened, after everything they’d lost, Loki could finally admit to himself that he loves the stupid oaf. He’d just never say it out loud. 

“Yes, of course. The people of Earth love me. I’m very popular.” Loki looked at his brother and suppressed a smirk, of course he wouldn’t get it. 

“Let me rephrase that.” Loki started again. “Do you really think it’s a good idea to bring me back to Earth?” Loki looked expectantly over at Thor. 

“Probably not, to be honest.” Loki allowed a small, but genuine smile at that. It appeared that his brother really had learned that lesson at least. Between this and not falling for his duplicity on Sakaar, he might just have to start giving Thor a bit more credit. Maybe. 

“I wouldn’t worry, brother.” Thor continued. “I feel like everything is going to work out fine.” 

Before Loki could start in on what a uselessly optimistic statement that was, a sudden shadow started to descend from the top of the panoramic window they were gazing out of. He and his brother turned their focus to the large shape that was currently blocking out the starlight. It was an epic monstrosity of a ship. Its insect-like hull managed to portray a malevolence that no inanimate object should possess. 

Unfortunately, Loki had seen this ship before. He knew exactly who it belonged to and he had some good notions as to why it was here. But the Trickster hadn’t expected him quite this soon. Loki had hoped that they would be on Midgard, where Thor would have not only his ragtag band but also the two other Infinity Stones at their disposal. He hadn’t even had time to explain everything to Thor. 

“Damn, they found me.” He whispered, but he knew Thor would hear perfectly. Loki looked sidelong at his brother, measuring his response. Thor’s face fell and he turned to give Loki his entire attention. 

“Loki, what did you do?” He growled. Loki started to ask his brother why he just assumed this was Loki’s fault. But he quickly realized that was the wrong move and shut his mouth. Even the Silvertongue couldn’t play this off. Thor had perfectly good reasons for his assumptions and what was more, they were true. He needed Thor’s attention and belief and he needed it quickly. He wouldn’t get anywhere fast by responding with his usual deflections. It went against his very nature, but he would have to give Thor the truth. 

“Thor,” Loki started, looking at him straight in the eyes, well eye, and making sure he had his brother’s undivided attention. Thor’s remaining baby blue widened at the exchange but he remained silent. “We haven’t had the time to talk about this with…” Loki waved a hand hoping that would encompass everything that had happened in the last... damn, had it really been six years since he fell from the bifrost? It seemed like too much had happened for such a short period of time. “But I need you to listen to me because we do not have much time.” 

Loki was this shy of kissing the Thunderer because while his brow furrowed, he stayed blessedly silent. 

“That ship belongs to Thanos.” At Thor’s lack of recognition, Loki sighed. “He was the one behind my attack on Earth.” Thor practically roared at that, but Loki held his hand up for silence. “When I fell from the bifrost, well I was in the void for quite a long time. I was already…” Loki paused not able to help himself from varnishing the truth a bit. “not myself. Floating through the void did me no favors. Fortunately, I was plucked out of the void; unfortunately, I was plucked out by a particularly malevolent creature. The ruler of the Chitari, The Other. The Other was a Lieutenant, of sorts, of Thanos. I strongly disagreed with my treatment at their hands and in doing so revealed that I was of Asgard. Thanos was called to deal with me directly, and he brought the Mind Stone with him." 

“Loki, you had been brainwashed? Like you had done to Selvig and the Hawk? Why would you not tell Father this at your trial?” Thor interrupted. Loki left the father comment be for now and smiled at his brother’s immediate belief. It almost hurt to have to disavow it. 

“Give me some credit, Thor. If I had such a defense at my disposal, wouldn't I have used it?" Then again, maybe not. He had been so tied up in rage and betrayal it honestly had never occurred to him to do anything but freely admit his intent. "I was never under the thrall of the Mind Stone, at least not like I had used it on the mortals. No, Thanos used it to get inside my head. He found out my origin, everything that I feared and hated and used it against me. His method of persuasion was far more convincing than the Chitari’s physical methods.” Loki trailed off with a flinch that he couldn’t quite hide. Thor, the sappy buffoon, put his hand on Loki’s shoulder in solidarity. Loki shrugged it off, this wasn’t the time for pity. 

“Anyways, that isn’t germane to the problem at hand. He had the Mind Stone, he wanted the Tesseract, the Space Stone. I was to trade it to him for my rule of earth. I was promised great suffering should I fail.” 

“So that is why he is here? He is here to punish you for your failure?” Thor asked. At that question a flash of light shot from the right of the gigantic ship and grazed the bow. The ship shook, but didn’t appear to be damaged. A warning shot. Loki fret. Should he tell Thor about taking the Tesseract from the vaults of Asgard? As if responding to Loki’s thoughts, Thor continued. 

“I won’t let him have you, Brother. Fortunately, he can’t get the Tesseract either. The explosion of Asgard would have surely destroyed it.” Loki had his doubts as to whether even that would have destroyed an Infinity Stone but he chose not to share them. 

“I believe this is more than mere revenge, Thor. There is a reason we ran into this ship in the vastness of space. We are on our way to Earth, so I believe is Thanos. The Mind Stone is still there, embedded in my scepter. So too is the Time Stone. I noticed an odd energy signature with that infernal sorcerer you spoke to; I’m sure he has it.” 

“The Mind Stone is defended, entrusted to The Vision who stands with the Avengers. But, especially if there are two stones on Earth, it is even more prudent for us to get there.” Thor insisted. 

“I agree. But, we have to escape this first.” Loki was sure that his pocket dimension hid the Tesseract’s energy signature. But if that was the case, why was Thanos attacking? Could this merely be bad luck? “There is a slight possibility that this is all chance. That they don’t know whose ship this is.” At Loki’s very words, a voice came over the intercom system, blasting across the ship and likely being directed on all outside channels, as it was clearly not addressing their people on board. 

“This the Asgardian refugee vessel, Statesmen. Our crew is made up of Asgardian families, we have very few soldier here. This is not a warcraft. I repeat, this is not a warcraft.” 

Loki cursed. Or perhaps, Loki was cursed. How was it that every damn time things went exactly the opposite of his wishes? For all his planning, for all his wits, it was like his chaos fought him as often as it helped him. 

“Ok, we can be pretty sure that now that Thanos knows the ship is from Asgard that he will fight. He has to know that if I’m not on it, someone may know my location.” 

"Then we will fight," Loki could practically see the lightning spark in Thor's eye. His brother had a lot of power, far more than Loki had ever thought possible. With Loki’s not inconsiderable skills, they might just win this fight. Thanos couldn't send his entire army over to the ship. More likely, it was led by some of his “children”. Even if there was more than one, Loki liked their odds. 

"Let's gather the Valkyrie, gladiators and your pet beast." Thor practically growled at him as Loki led him to the observation deck. "Oh fine, Banner then. There shouldn’t be too many that they can send over…”


	2. This House is on Fire

Thor and Loki ran through the hallway to the main observation deck just as a wave of purple energy shot through the large space. Even on the edges, Loki felt the energy sizzle down to his bones. It rocked him to his core; he felt instantly exhausted as if he had been fighting for days. But when they caught sight of the deck, he wished the rest of the ship had been so lucky. 

The observation deck, where just a few days before Thor had taken his seat as official King of Asgard, was once again a sea of bodies. But these bodies weren’t standing in honor of their king, they were crumpled, dead upon impact. Loki and Thor exchanged looks of horror. Loki was struck with an unusual feeling for him, guilt. However deceptively, he had been these people’s king for years. And while a good percentage of his motivation had been revenge on his former father and brother, he had tried to be a good one. Now all these people were dead and he had no one else he could blame it on. 

Tension creeped into his shoulders as he could practically feel Thor coming to the same conclusion. If they survived this, Thor would never forgive him. Loki’s brother had the biggest heart he had ever known, but no one could forgive this. The sound of a transport beam pulled him away from his thoughts. He pulled his brother back into the corridor out of sight from the figures that were now stomping loudly towards them. Bodies were shuffled and further broken under feet with sickening crunching sounds. 

“Come out and face me, little gods,” A frighteningly familiar deep voice called. “I know you aren’t among the dead.” 

Ignoring Loki’s pulling and silent protests, Thor walked confidently into the room to face their attackers. Loki grudgingly followed behind him, not however, letting his concern show in his steps. Thor was now standing just in front of the large windows in the center of the room, glaring down their boarders. Loki took his place to the right and just behind Thor, silently signaling his allegiance. He stared at the 5 large figures approaching them and just barely held down a nervous gulp. He knew Thanos himself had boarded, there was no forgetting that gravel voice that still whispered in his nightmares. He had not anticipated that Thanos would also bring the entire Black Order, a subset of four of his “children”. 

Before either he or his brother could so much as speak, Thanos clenched his golden fist and they were enveloped once again by a purple light. Thor went flying back into the window and dropped to the floor. Loki crumbled where he stood, writhing in pain far stronger than their first exposure. He couldn’t move, could barely think, he could only watch as Thanos advanced towards Thor. The Titan barely spared Loki a look, which Loki still found the energy to be insulted by. He was unceremoniously hauled to his feet by Corvus Glaive. Proxima Midnight, a particularly frightening horned woman pointed her spear at him threateningly. Loki was working on Plans B and C when Ebony Maw started speaking, thoroughly distracting him. 

“Hear me, and rejoice. You have had the privilege of being saved by the great Thanos. You may think this is suffering, no. It is salvation. The universal scale tips toward balance because of your sacrifice. Smile. For even in death, you have become children of Thanos.” 

Loki seriously hoped that when he had spoken on Earth that he hadn’t sounded half this overblown. Fortunately, it did give him the time to scan the bodies. He could clearly see Heimdall, sword in hand, struggling for breath but still very much alive. More importantly he noticed who he didn’t see. There was no large green body among the dead. As Ebony Maw had paused, he was just about to make a comment, something pithy to cut the tension when Thanos started to speak and he found he had no voice to spare. 

“I know what it’s like to lose. To feel so desperately that you’re right, yet to fail nonetheless.” Loki realized that Thanos was speaking to him, even as he was moving towards Thor’s still barely moving body. The Titan roughly grabbed the chest plate of Thor’s armor. His strength obvious in that he made no notice of Thor’s struggles. Slowly, Thanos started walking back towards where Loki was now surrounded by the entire Black Order. As the Mad Titan made eye contact, Loki fought a shiver and was suddenly wishing he could be insulted by being beneath Thanos’ notice again. 

“Frightening.” Thanos continued. “Turns the legs to jelly. I ask you to what end? Dread it? Run from it? Destiny arrives all the same, and now it’s here. Or should I say: I am.” 

“You talk too much.” Thor interjected and Loki allowed himself the smallest smile. That smile quickly fell away as Thanos palmed Thor’s head and placed the purple stone on the golden gauntlet he definitely shouldn’t possess against Thor’s temple. 

“The Tesseract or your brother’s head. I assume you have a preference?” 

Loki couldn’t spare his brother a glance. How could Thanos possibly be sure that Loki had the Tesseract? There was no way he could detect the energy signature from within Loki's hiding place, right? But there was no question on Thanos’ face, only certainty. Please, brother. Loki begged inwardly. You withstood it twice already. Just hold on. 

“Oh, I do.” Loki said with far more confidence than he felt. “Kill away.” Thanos pressed the stone harder into Thor’s temple and the purple started to shine. The glow radiated from where the stone was placed on Thor's temple in angry lines. Only a second passed before Thor started to scream in pain, his face a mask of agony. 

There was a time when Loki believed that his greatest desire would be to see Thor brought low and in pain like this. He would have done anything in his power to get them to this point. But after finally hearing those cries, seeing that agony on his brother’s face, he knew that Thor couldn’t take it. It would kill him. Loki could feel the tears welling up in his eyes and he couldn’t hold back his next words. 

“Alright stop!” He shouted and instantly Thanos pulled the gauntlet away. 

Catching his breath, voice hoarse from screaming, Thor was quick to the defense. “We don’t have the Tesseract. It was destroyed on Asgard.” 

Loki almost wanted to laugh. He should have just told Thor of the Tesseract earlier if he was going to just hand it over like this. But what was one more betrayal after countless others? He held up his hand and conjured the Tesseract back from his pocket dimension. The light shined on his face, blue and perfect and oh so tempting. 

When he saw it back in the vaults of Asgard, it didn’t matter that time was of the essence and he needed to start Ragnarok, all he could think of was that perfect, blue cube and everything he could do with it. Now he just wished that he could have let it be destroyed with Asgard, if that was possible. He presented the Tesseract to Thanos with a flourish of his hand, but his head hung down in shame and frustration he could not hide. It was then that he caught a flash of movement from the corner of his eyes. The little scientist was hiding just out of sight. Obviously waiting for the right moment to free the monster. 

“You really are the worst brother.” Thor said bitterly, but with no real surprise. The comment hurt more than Loki would like to admit. Tesseract still in hand, Loki tried to summon some of Thor’s boundless optimism. For some odd reason, an old childhood memory came to mind. 

Thor and Loki had been quite young, just barely past the age where they were allowed out hunting on their own. They had foolishly pestered a bull bilgesnipe; Loki couldn't remember who had done the actual mischief, probably Thor. The creature, fully twice their height with antlers half again as tall and razor sharp, had chased them until they finally managed to duck into a cave. The cave’s entrance was too small for the beast to fit. But, the creature didn’t just give up. It waited at the mouth of the cave for hours, long into the night, until they were shivering in the pitch black. 

This was long before Loki had mastered his magic. He tried for hours to conjure a fire to no effect. But Thor, the confident older brother, even shivering as he was in the cold, wrapped his cloak around Loki and wrapped his arms around his smaller brother. Loki didn’t have the heart to tell him that he wasn’t shaking from the cold, but from blind panic; his brother’s arms were too comforting to push away. Loki never forgot the words Thor spoke in that seemingly endless dark. “I assure you, Brother. The sun will shine on us again.” 

Loki was still young enough at the time that his big brother was his hero. When Thor told him something would happen, Loki knew it in his bones. Those words were the most comforting thing he had ever heard. He was able to stop shivering, focus his mind and conjure the barest wisp of a fire. It wasn’t much, but they were no longer in the dark. It was enough to see Thor’s huge, proud grin. 

Of course, the two princes of Asgard being missing for hours did not go unnoticed. It wasn’t even the full night before Odin was able to track them down, but it had been Loki’s first real experience with fear. It had also instilled a trust and bond with his brother that had lasted for centuries, until arrogance and bitterness started to creep in and taint their relationship. Back in the present, Loki tried to summon the comfort he had felt at Thor’s words and relayed them to his brother. 

“I assure you, Brother, the sun will shine on us again.” Loki was unsure if there was any spark of recognition at his words; Thor was looking up at him with so much bitterness. 

“Your optimism is misplaced, Asgardian.” Thanos drew Loki’s attention away from Thor. Despite reclaiming his brother, Loki couldn’t help a rejoinder. 

“Well for one thing, I’m not Asgardian. For another, we have a Hulk.” He could feel the green monster leap into action from behind him. He dropped the Tesseract and crawled out of the way of the Hulk and next to his brother. He paid no mind to the melee going on, his entire attention was on Thor. 

He grabbed Thor’s face and examined where the Power Stone had been pressed. There was a nasty burn that had trailing threads of red running from it, but otherwise Thor appeared to be unharmed. As soon as he caught his breath, Thor pulled away from his hands. 

“Go, Loki.” He whispered. 

“Don’t be silly, oaf. Your monster is distracting Thanos. I’m sure I can get us out of here somehow.” He looked towards Heimdall who seemed the worse for wear. 

“I’m not leaving Banner. Take care of yourself, it’s what you’re good at. I know you’ll find a way out of this.” 

Loki winced. No one knew as well as a liar how much the truth really hurt. “Thor, I…” 

Thor interrupted him. “Run, get as far away from here as you can and hopefully Thanos won’t go looking for you when he’s busy trying to get the Infinity Stones.” 

“But Earth…” Loki started. 

“Like you care about Earth.” 

“I care about the universe if Thanos wins!” Loki interjected angrily. He may be selfish, but he existed in this universe too. 

“Leave,” Thor growled and, despite himself, Loki walked away. He stepped into the corridor his mind racing. 

What could he possibly do? Staying here would only get him killed along with everyone else. Thor was in no condition to fight, Loki would be completely on his own. However, the only place he could reliably get to would be either Thanos’ ship, which seemed counterproductive, or the closest of the nine realms, which was Muspelheim. Even with Surtur gone, that place was filled with fire demons, and despite his Asgardian appearance, he didn’t do well with the thick heat of the place. Because of this, he had done little exploration of the ways and didn’t know how to get from there to any other realm. He’d be trapped. 

Loki turned back; he didn’t know what he’d be able to do, but he knew that he couldn’t just leave without knowing the outcome. He arrived just in time to see the Hulk tossed on the ground and Thor nod to Heimdall. 

“Allfather, let the Dark Magic flow through me one last time…” Loki hadn’t thought that the bastard had even that much left in him, but sure enough the bright rainbow of the bifrost started to gather around the green beast. Loki had mere moments to think. He knew he couldn’t just disappear. Thanos would not think him dead unless he killed Loki himself. And the Trickster could not bear to be left not knowing what happened to Thor. Invisibly, he ran into the rainbow light leaving a completely solid double behind in the corridor. 

He felt that all too familiar tug behind his navel as he and the beast were sent straight to Midgard. They appeared in the center of a hole in a large set of staircases. The Hulk started to fade back into his human mask, but Loki paid him little mind. Looking down at them was the pretentious sorcerer and another, who must also be a fellow caster. 

Banner shouted out to the sorcerers that Thanos was coming. For himself, Loki confirmed that he was still invisible and unharmed. That established, he promptly ignored the events going on around him on Earth and turned his focus back to the Statesman.


	3. Shot Down in Flames

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please keep one thing in mind, for about half of this story Loki is the narrator (Tony Stark will also narrate as he comes into the story). Loki hates truths, especially about himself. The person Loki is best at lying to will always be himself, so take the events from his perspective with a grain of salt.

Loki's attention returned just in time to see Ebony Maw presenting the Tesseract to Thanos. 

“My humble personage bows before your grandeur. No other being has ever had the might, nay the nobility, to wield not one but two Infinity Stones. The universe lies within your grasp.” It took everything in Loki to not interject right at that moment. Actually, he had wielded two Infinity Stones first, albeit briefly; too bad he had no one to sing his praises. 

“There are two more Stones on Earth.” Thanos replied. “Find them my children, bring them to me on time.” 

“Father, we will not fail you.” Responded Proxima Midnight solemnly. Well, there was no time like the present. 

“If I might interject,” Loki started as he walked back onto the deck. “If you’re going to Earth, you might want a guide. I do have a bit of experience in that area.” 

“If you consider failure, experience.” Thanos replied. Loki barely managed not to growl at that. There were a lot of reasons his takeover had failed and not all of them were his fault. It’s a bit difficult to plan a successful martial maneuver when you are out of your mind. 

“I consider experience, experience.” He harkened back to Ebony Maw’s ridiculous verbosity. He was the Silvertongue, he could always do it better. Loki put his hand to his heart and approached Thanos solemnly. “O mighty Thanos. I, Loki; Prince of Asgard; Odinson;” At this, he couldn’t help a glance towards Thor. He tried to convey so much in the look. Apology, comfort, some hint that this is all a part of a plan. 

At some point, someone had wrapped Thor in twisted pieces of metal, complete with muzzle. Any other time Loki would stop to appreciate the irony of that. Instead, as he looked back to Thanos and continued, he conjured a dagger behind his back. Maybe that would speak louder than his words. He continued his list. “The rightful King of Jotunheim; God of Mischief; Do hereby pledge to you my undying fidelity.” At his last words, he was bowing just in front of Thanos. He raised the dagger in one smooth, quick motion. His face fell as he was stopped just inches away from Thanos’s neck by the gauntlet. 

While he knew he couldn’t kill Thanos this way, he had hoped he could sneak by and do a bit of damage. Thanos grabbed him by the neck to raise him into the air. While Loki could feel the pressure and pain of the squeeze, it was a distant kind of pain. But he choked and kicked his legs for effect. 

“Undying? You should choose your words more carefully.” Thanos grinned at him and Loki so wanted to grin back. Loki always chose his words very carefully. A thought occurred to Loki, for the very first time since he saw that terrible ship. He could defeat Thanos. Certainly not alone, but if Thanos underestimated Gods this badly, how much would he underestimate Earth’s Mightiest Heroes? 

He struggled to speak as Thanos cut off the air to the double “You...will never be...a god.” He managed before Thanos finally snapped the double’s neck. 

"No resurrections this time," Thanos sneered. 

He couldn’t let the double just disappear or it would give the game away, so he was able to maintain his awareness. As soon as he dropped to the floor, Thanos used the Space Stone to send himself and his children away. Loki had no idea where Thanos’ destination was, but he needed to warn Earth as he had no doubt that the Black Order would be there shortly. 

As soon as Thanos left, the metal binding Thor released, and Thor crawled over to Loki’s body. Thor practically fell on him, crying. Loki tried to call out to Thor, to reassure him, to tell him what could be done to escape to Thanos’ ship, something. But the double’s throat was crushed beyond repair. Suddenly, a wash of the brightest purple cut off his connection. Loki started as he realized he was staring at the debris below him in the Sorcerer’s abode. 

“Loki?” He heard Banner’s cautious voice above him. In the surprise, he must have dropped his invisibility. He couldn’t respond as cold suffused his entire body. He’d never had an issue with the cold, it had always been kind to him. Certainly, he’d never been a particularly warm being, but Loki had never experienced this kind of cold. This lonely, hostile ice gripping his heart. 

He was now completely alone. This was not the emotional separation expressed in boasting or bitterness; his brother was gone. Thor was dead. He saw the purple light, he knew the force that would have had to be exerted for it to be that bright, to break Loki’s connection to his double. There was no way the ship could have survived it, much less Thor. 

Suddenly, his legs didn’t seem to want to hold him up anymore. He dropped into the chunks of wood and just stared at the rubble, unseeing. Hands grabbed his shoulders to bring him into the present and he looked up into Banner’s wide, brown concerned eyes. He let Banner help him to his feet and out of the piles of wood. 

For a long while, actually, Loki wasn't sure how long. Minutes? Hours? He just sat on the stairs as the three figures hovered over him. When he finally came to enough to pay them spare attention, they seemed to be waiting for something, but what could he possibly do at this point? Loki was no hero; that was Thor’s job. Loki’s job was to make everything harder for Thor. Teach him humility and take him down a few pegs. What was he supposed to do with himself now? He was currently wrapped in the conundrum, the all-encompassing loss of what to do when the person around whom your entire life revolved is suddenly gone. 

The sorcerer cleared his throat pointedly and Loki glared up at him. Suddenly feeling the weight of the figures looming over him, he stood. It may be petty to find comfort in looking down on each of them, but Loki has never claimed to not be petty. 

“What happened?” The sorcerer asked. “What did you see?” 

“Thor’s dead.” Loki said, and it surprised him how numb his voice sounded. 

“Are you sure?” Banner asked. 

If the sorcerer had asked this question, Loki would have snapped. He managed to not attack Banner for the impertinence, knowing it came from true concern for Thor. “Nothing could have survived that last blast. He’s gone.” He didn’t choke on those last words, but just barely. Then he remembered why he was here. Loki straightened his back, turned to the sorcerer and hoped his voice sounded as clipped and business-like as he intended. 

“The Black Order, Thanos’ children, they’re coming. He has the Space Stone, so they could be here any minute. You need to hide the Time Stone.” 

“What makes you think I have the Time Stone?” The sorcerer asked. Loki gave him his best “Do you really expect me to believe that line?” face, but the man remained firm. 

“Here I was under the impression that you knew about me. I have wielded both the Space and Mind Stones; I know what an Infinity Stone’s energy signature feels like. I knew the minute I escaped your little dimensional warp. 

“You mean when I let you out?” The sorcerer rebuffed with a sly smile. There was a dagger in Loki’s hand before he gave it a second thought. Banner put a restraining hand on his shoulder. It was so clear in Loki’s mind. He could stab Banner then throw the knife into the sorcerer. He could grab the necklace and then he would teleport and be on the other side of the island before the Hulk could claim vengeance. But he needed these fools if they were going to have a chance at stopping the Titan. He waved away the violent, if satisfying, plan. 

“I was caught unawares the first time, sorcerer. And there is not much you can do when you are perpetually falling for a half hour. I will not make that mistake again.” Loki spoke tightly. “Now how about instead of wasting our time with pointless denials, let’s call up your Avengers and be prepared to stop the Black Order from stealing your stones.” 

“How about we start with you calling me by my name instead of Sorcerer? I am Dr. Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme and Master of the New York Sanctum. This is Wong, Master of the Hong Kong Sanctum.” 

“And this is the Hulk and I am Loki, God of Mischief. It's a pleasure to meet you. Really, we should do this again sometime." Loki responded in his best court manners before dropping the façade and bellowing. "Can we please continue along and call up the Captain and Man of Iron and whoever else has joined that band of misfits?” 

“Actually, I’m Dr. Bruce Banner. I’m only the Other Guy sometimes.” 

Loki looked at Banner appraisingly. “Excellent point, you should really shed that skin and become the monster. He would be far more helpful right now.” 

“Judging by how I feel right now he would probably be far more interested in pummeling you than the Black Order. Will you please stop calling me Monster?” Loki waved away the objection negligently. Seriously, why was everyone so caught up in details? Banner was a monster; there was nothing he could do about it. Loki could relate, he too had a monster inside. There was no reason to argue the point. Banner looked at him frustrated, but he wasn’t yet green. Loki rolled his eyes. 

“I can contact Tony Stark, but as he doesn’t know me, perhaps you’d like to join me Dr. Banner?” Dr. Strange said, ignoring Loki and Banner’s interchange. Banner nodded and stepped up next to the sorcerer as he conjured a portal. 

Loki couldn’t resist muttering “Finally.” 

When Strange and Banner looked back at him with identical faces of annoyance he just smiled beatifically at them, content to be back in his usual role.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to note that Thor isn't dead. I am assuming that all events that take place off of Earth occur exactly as they did in the movie with Thor and the Guardians up until they meet up with Dr. Strange, Tony and Peter as those characters are going to be influenced by Loki's presence. Also, since I am just sticking with two perspectives (Loki and Tony) you wont get that bit in the story but hopefully if you are reading this you've seen Infinity War and can fill in the gaps yourself.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	4. Back in Black

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now we change to Tony's POV and the words to plot ratio increases dramatically. The man will just not stop talking!

Tony Stark was jogging through the park, definitely not trying to appear as if he was less tired than he was, since Pepper seemed to manage to look completely unimpressed with their speed. For about the 500th time he swore he would go jogging without her, but the truth was, without her prodding him, the thought wouldn’t ever occur to him. Plus it was kind of nice to spend some time together away from the office; it had become sort of their thing. Their romantic relationship had ended long ago, just before the Sokovia Accords and all the drama those brought with them. He was actually kind of proud that he only got the slightest pang of anger and hurt thinking about those events. Obviously he was growing as a person. 

Both Pepper and Tony had agreed that there was no one else who could be CEO of Stark Industries, so after several long months, that he actually didn’t remember very well because he had been drunk for most of it, they had re-established their working relationship. And let’s be honest, Tony and Pepper’s prior working relationship was closer than a lot of marriages. It was still second nature for Pepper to take care of Tony and for Tony to, mostly, let her. Hence, the jogging. 

“So, are we going to talk about this?” Pepper nodded at the elephant in the room, or more specifically the reactor in his chest. 

“You know I’m glad you brought it up. You see this is just in case.” 

“In case, Tony?” 

“You know, in case of a monster in the closet. Instead of... you know” 

"Shirts?" Pepper smiled, but there was a frustration in it. "You don’t need it, Tony.” 

“I know I don’t need it, it’s just…. In case.” 

A bright orange glow to his right distracted him from the conversation. A circle of orange sparks just appeared in the middle of the park. Out of it stepped through an oddly dressed man with fantastic facial hair. 

“Tony Stark?” The man asked. 

“Present?” 

“I’m going to need you to come with me. It's not overselling it to say that the fate of the universe is at stake.” He then turned to Pepper. “Oh and congratulations on the engagement.” Pepper smiled a bit hesitantly, but thanked the man. 

Tony looked down at the finger in question and sure enough there was a nice, if understated, diamond ring. Tony looked questioningly at Pepper. 

“It just happened yesterday.” She responded with a blush. 

“Tell Happy he’s in trouble for not saying anything to me. And then tell him I’m taking you both out to celebrate. Dinner? Tonight? Book it.” 

“Tony, don’t you think you’ll be a little busy with…” Pepper trailed off waving her hand at the portal and what could only be a wizard. 

Before Tony could respond, a figure walked out cautiously from behind Mr. Wizard. If Tony thought he couldn’t be more surprised by the events of the day, he was wrong. It was Bruce. Bruce Banner was standing right in front of him all nervous and frumpy and he could almost believe it hadn’t been three years since the Hulk had disappeared in that Quinjet. 

“Hey Tony,” Bruce said in that unassuming way of his. Tony was about as close to speechless as he could get. 

All he could think of to say was. “Bruce,” and the man grabbed him into a hug. “Where have you…?” He trailed off. 

“Thor’s gone. Thanos is coming.” Bruce started rambling and Tony looked at Pepper, begging with his eyes for her to tell him what he should do. She just shook her head and gestured to the portal. Looks like he was going to Fairyland. 

He kept his arm around Bruce, not sure if he was reassuring the man that Tony was there for him or reassuring himself that Bruce wasn’t going anywhere. They followed the wizard through the portal and into what looked like a museum atrium. It was all done up in dark woods and impeccably done, other than the giant Hulk-sized hole in the staircase. Tony was starting to put a few pieces together. 

There were two other figures in the room, flanking each side of the staircase, but Tony barely noticed them and focused on Bruce. 

“Ok, calm down Brucey and start from the beginning.” 

“Uh...not sure where to start. The quinjet crash landed on another planet. The Other Guy was there this entire time up until Thor ended up trapped there too. We escaped together to save his planet. We were on our way here when Thanos attacked. Thor’s gone, Tony. Thanos just tore through the ship…” Bruce trailed off and glanced over at the figure to the right of the staircase; Tony’s gaze was drawn away from his friend and over to the stranger. 

The man had his head down, ostensibly in grief. He was a tall man, lean but muscular and wearing head to toe, skin-tight leather and armor. Too tall, lots of leather, definitely Asgardian. The last Asgardian based on what Bruce was saying. After a few seconds of silence and Tony’s gaze, the man looked up from under his long, wavy black hair and stared back, his face completely, disconcertingly blank, not showing an ounce of the sorrow that seemed to weigh down the rest of his body. Tony was struck with how familiar the guy was. There was something about his lean face, his sharp, green eyes. Then it hit him. 

“Holy fuck, that’s Loki!” Tony gaped and took a step back. He was startled, certainly but damn. It was amazing what a few years could do. His face had filled out; he’d lost that starved look. His skin was still pale, but not sallow. He didn’t have those dark purple bruises under his eyes. But most striking was the fact that you could no longer smell the crazy on him, as Bruce had so colorfully put it so many years ago. He still looked intense certainly, but there was almost a composure about him. He didn’t look like he was seconds away from stabbing everyone while cackling madly. Altogether, Tony thought as he looked up and down, Loki was a seriously attractive guy. How had Tony not noticed before? Then Tony realized he was appraising a wanted criminal; a wanted, supposedly dead criminal. 

“You’re supposed to be dead.” He accused. Loki gave him a toothy smile that reminded Tony of a shark. Ok, not completely housebroken then. 

“Which time?” He asked nonchalantly. 

Tony looked questioningly at Bruce who just shrugged. Tony said, “Something to do with a convergence and a planet I can’t pronounce-heim.” 

“Ah! Svartelfheim.” 

“Gesundheit.” 

Loki’s grin seemed a bit more genuine at that. “It didn’t take.” 

“But Thor said you were dead. He said you died in his arms.” Tony countered. 

“Thor told you what he knew.” 

“Dude, that’s cold. You let your brother think you were dead? Twice?” Loki’s smile fell away, disappearing back behind that mask of complete blankness. Oh, Tony had definitely struck a nerve. 

"God of Mischief," was his flat response. 

"Oh, so we're over the, 'He's not my brother', thing?" 

Loki stared at him, his mask not wavering in the slightest. After several minutes of antsy silence, the god moved again affecting a bored expression that Tony didn’t believe for a second. He turned his back to Tony to speak to the others. 

“This reunion has been quite fun, but there are some rather pressing matters we should be attending to.” 

As Wong launched into the background of the Infinity Stones, Tony mostly paid attention, stretching, holding on to whatever was handy before Gandalf stopped him with an insulting smack. Something about pretty colored stones and the big bang. Collect all six! He had gotten the basic idea from Thor when they were dealing with Loki’s staff and Vision. The thought of the scepter turned his attention back to the Would-be King. He too was not paying strict attention, affecting an air of disinterest and superiority. Then again, that was probably his default expression. 

The room had been silent for a few minutes before Tony noticed. Oh yeah, this little demonstration was for him. 

“Tell me his name again.” He said to Bruce. 

“Thanos. He's a plague, Tony, he invades planets; he takes what he wants; he wipes out half the population. He sent Loki. The attack on New York, that's him.” 

Tony looked over at Loki, who nodded his confirmation. 

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Tony asked the God. 

“No one asked.” Loki responded with that scary smile again. Tony scoffed. “You were my enemies, Stark. I was trying to conquer your little world. Why would I volunteer the information?” 

“Somehow I don't figure that even then you wanted Thanos to conquer the universe.” Tony countered. 

Loki hummed in thought for a moment. “I find it difficult to recall what I wanted at the time beyond violence and revenge.” He admitted with an expression like the words tasted bad in his mouth. “Certainly that is the last thing I wish now, but then…?” 

“You were totally crazy?” 

“I admit I was not quite myself.” Oh yeah, the god was definitely embarrassed about having been CooCoo for Coco Puffs. He looked exceedingly uncomfortable at this line of questioning, which tickled Tony to no end. Served him right for everything the Trickster had put them through. 

“No worries, Reindeer Games.” Tony said magnanimously, flashing his Press smile. “Better late than never.” Loki scowled, but stayed mercifully silent. 

“So, this is it.” Tony said, turning back to the rest of the group. “What’s our timeline?” 

“No telling.” Banner replied. “He has the Power and Space Stones; that already makes him the strongest creature in the whole universe. If he gets his hands on all six Stones, Tony...” 

“He could destroy life on a scale hitherto undreamt of.” Dr. Strange cut in. 

“Did you seriously just say ‘hitherto undreamt of’?” Tony asked. He needed to get back to normal people who spoke in normal words. “If Thanos needs all six, why don't we just stick this one down a garbage disposal?” 

“No can do.” Chimed Mr. Wizard. 

“We swore an oath to protect the Time Stone with our lives.” Said Mr. Asian Wizard. Tony made a note that he should probably not say that one out loud. 

“And I swore off dairy, but then Ben & Jerry's named a flavor after me. So...” Tony trailed off as Loki giggled. The man actually giggled, not cackled manically or chuckled bitterly. In his running list of weirdness that happened today, that one took the cake. He filed that away as a to-be-handled later. 

“I can tell you that destroying an Infinity Stone is practically impossible. The Black Order has already been dispatched to Earth to collect the Mind and Time stones. They were at least partially transported via the Space Stone so they could be here any time. That must mean that Thanos is going after the Reality stone and Soul stones himself.” Loki cut in. 

“Do you know where either of those are?” Dr. Strange asked the god. 

"I couldn't find any information on where the Soul Stone might be, but I sent the Aether, the Reality Stone, to Knowhere. It’s far from this galaxy and should take Thanos quite a while to retrieve.” 

“Who the hell trusted you with another Infinity Stone?” Tony asked. What the fuck was wrong with these aliens? Loki should have been locked up and the key tossed in some black hole. 

“Oh no one of any intelligence would trust Loki with one, I assure you. However, I was masquerading as the All-Father at the time. The logic was sound. We already had the Tesseract in the vaults of Asgard, it would not have been wise to maintain two Infinity Stones in the same location.” 

“Ok, ignoring the whole pretending to be your daddy thing for the moment, but believe me we’ll get to that later, the Tesseract is the Space stone right? One of the ones Thanos has already?” Loki nodded hesitantly, obviously sensing where this line of questioning was going. “So how did Thanos get it? You gave it to him didn’t you?” 

Loki sneered. “If I told you I had to, would you believe me?” 

“No actually, I wouldn’t. How are we supposed to trust that you are not working for Thanos when you wanted to give him the Tesseract way back when and now he suddenly has exactly what he wants?” Tony was starting to boil with anger. The little shit was just standing there, smiling and sneering like it was just a given that they would believe everything the liar said. 

“Tony,” Bruce interjected. Tony turned his attention to the scientist, his anger stemming just a bit in his continued relief that the man was ok. “I saw what happened when Loki gave Thanos the Tesseract. He was torturing Thor. He was about to kill him. Loki had to.” 

“So we’re just supposed to believe that all of a sudden Loki cared about his brother being alive? Do you remember how many times he tried to kill Thor when he was here?” 

“I’m not saying they don’t have issues, I mean even on Sakaar….” Bruce trailed off for a moment in memory and Tony really wanted to know what the scientist was recalling because he was sure it would be relevant. But Banner quickly came back to it. “But Loki showed up to save the day. He’s not like he was back then. Surely even you can see that.” Tony couldn’t deny that the villain was trying his best to appear not villainy and certainly less crazy, but there was nothing to prove that it wasn’t just an act. 

“You would be a fool to trust me.” Loki supplied casually. He glided, fucking glided, over to Tony and put an arm companionably on his shoulder, leaning a bit. Tony jerked away taking a couple of steps to regain his personal space. 

Damn it! That was his move. Granted this guy had been alive for centuries before Tony was even born, but still. Loki didn’t seem at all perturbed by the distance, the fucker. He just smiled like it was all a part of his plan. “So let me tell you what I told my brother before we fought the dark elves and I died in glorious battle.” 

“Uh died?” Dr. Strange questioned and Loki smirked but didn’t respond to him. 

“Trust my rage. There were times that I wanted Thor dead. But, I wanted to be the one to kill him. What’s more, Thanos made me his tool to obtain the Stones which led to my defeat at your hands and abject humiliation. Don’t trust me, but trust that I want Thanos to fail as much as you do.” 

Tony wasn’t quite sure how to reply to that, but the universe stepped in. Right at that moment he noticed that the wind started to pick up. This was especially weird considering they were indoors. He looked up at the hulk-sized hole in the roof; leaves and various debris were blowing by far quicker than one would normally see in a city where the buildings blocked most wind. 

“Shit, something’s here.”


	5. Shoot to Thrill

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First battle scene I've ever written, please be gentle.

The five of them walked out of the tranquility of the Sanctum, to the chaos that was the street outside. Winds were whipping like mad, people were running, cars were crashing. Crashing almost right into them actually, thought Tony as he dodged the car that went hurtling into a light pole. He put on and tapped his glasses. 

"FRIDAY?" 

"Working on it, boss." His trusty assistant responded, with just the vaguest hint of frustration in her tone. 

But soon it was obvious what was causing the chaos. As their group turned the corner the giant donut of a spaceship came into view. As spaceships went, this wasn't the most intimidating. Definitely came in after the creepy whale things Loki brought with him. 

"Are these the chuckleheads you warned us about?" Tony asked looking behind him for Loki. Two wizards and a scientist were looking back at him, no god though. It was like the beginning of a joke. Two wizards and a scientist walk into a bar looking for God. He held up his arms in question at the three, but they looked as clueless as he was. 

He called louder over the screeching winds. "God of Mischief?" 

"Is that a prayer, Stark?" He jumped as the voice sounded to his right, next to his ear, but there was no sign of the god. He put out his hand in the vague direction of where the voice came from and hit something solid not a foot away. 

"Shit, you can go invisible?" He felt the rumble of the laugh next to him. That would be a yes. "Is there a reason you are currently invisible?" 

"This is the Black Order, some of the Children of Thanos. They think me dead. It seems too good of an advantage to abandon so quickly." Well, yeah. That made sense. 

Tony was distracted as a wave of orange energy flowed down the street towards the big spaceship effectively stilling the air around them. 

"Yay, no more yelling." Tony nodded at the Doc who winked at him sarcastically, as the others walked up to join him and Loki. 

Suddenly, a beam of blue light came off the ship and a pair of figures appeared on the otherwise abandoned street. It was an interesting pair, both were greyish, slightly lizardy looking, but that was where the resemblances ended. One was a big hulk of a dude carrying a scarily proportionate axe, the other more human shaped. The human shaped one spoke first. 

"Hear me and rejoice. You are about to die at the hands of the Children of Thanos. Be thankful that your meaningless lives are now..." Tony rolled his eyes. Again, with the speechifying villains. 

"I'm sorry. Earth is closed today. You better pack up and get outta here." A snicker sounded from his front left. It seemed Loki was moving closer to their invaders. 

"Stonekeeper," The smaller guy started again. This comment directed towards Strange. Great, they knew exactly where the Infinity Stone was. "Does this chattering animal speak for you?" Hey! 

"Certainly not, I speak for myself." Double hey! But then Strange did this cool orange magic shield thingy with both his hands which distracted Tony from his ire. "You are trespassing in this city and on this planet." 

"He means get lost, Squidward!" Tony couldn't resist adding. 

"So be it." The alien intoned pompously. Tony took a few steps back so that he was even with Bruce. 

"Ready for this?" Tony asked him. 

"No, not really, but when do I ever get what I want." 

"That's right." There was some grunting to his side, but no big green. "Good to have you back, buddy." Tony filled in. 

"Need to concentrate here for a second," Bruce grunted, neck green and face intent. But it went no farther than that. 

"What's going on?" 

"I dunno, we're sort of having a thing?" A thing? Of course, Bruce would pick now to start having a thing. 

"There's no time to have a thing." Tony prodded. That very large alien was starting to get closer. "That's the thing right there." Bruce grunted and groaned. He bore down in a way that was really uncomfortable to watch, but still the green went no further than his chin. 

"Dude, you're embarrassing me in front of the wizards." Tony couldn't help pointing out when the Doctor gave him a look. Tony was just trying to hide the nerves. The Hulk seemed like the perfect counter to this very large alien. 

The big guy was starting to pick up speed so Tony shuffled Bruce off behind Wong before stepping forward. It was hero time. 

Tony would be lying if he said he hadn't been looking forward to showing this off. Here he was, just in a tracksuit, regular old day. But pull a couple of cords, two taps on the reactor and the suit started to flow around him. No wristbands, no bulky briefcase, no long process of on and off. This was exactly the situation he had anticipated when he was talking to Pepper about monster in the closet. The helmet had just covered his head when the colossus swung his giant axe and he had to duck and pull up the shield that formed from his arm. 

He decided to go straight for the big guns for the big guy. Four plasma arrays popped out of the back of the suit and he pointed the ones in his wrist. The blast blew even this giant back towards his little friend. Unfortunately, at the last minute, Squidward waved his hand and the big guy went flying into a lightpole. Damn it! Did everyone have magic but him? 

"Where did that come from?" Bruce called from behind him. Tony turned around to address him, grinning, though no one could see that. 

"It's nanotech. You like it?" 

"Stark!" Strange shouted and Tony turned, repulsors up, to see a car flying at his face. The doc pulled up one of his orange circles and suddenly the car was elsewhere and no longer imminently about to crush his skull. 

At this point Tony felt he should probably concentrate on the fight rather than going science bros with Bruce. He focused on the evil wizard. He was raising his finger to obviously send something else heavy towards them when he suddenly grabbed at some invisible force that appeared to be choking him. Loki had obviously joined the battle. 

While Loki contended with Saruman, Tony had a giant with an axe on a long-ass chain to deal with. He easily dodged the first swing and fired his repulsors at the guy. They did just about as much as he expected, which was pretty much nothing. So, he flew up to the alien to see how he dealt with some hand to hand. 

When the giant, grey fist grabbed his own much quicker than Tony would have expected, he was forced to conclude that the alien did quite well with hand to hand. The fist was starting to make dents into his armor when Tony was suddenly propelled to the left, hit by a large projectile. That projectile turned out to be a now visible Loki. 

Tony and Loki landed in a clump. The god shot up quickly, growling and pulling a pair of vicious silver daggers out of midair. 

"If it isn't the little god," Squidward said, and maybe it was the alien face, but he appeared to be concerned. "How did you possibly get off that ship? Alive?" 

"I said 'undying' did I not?" Loki grinned viciously and launched at the alien. The Trickster was crazy fast, on the evil wizard in just a few steps, daggers flying. It seemed that Loki had some unlimited supply of them stashed somewhere because he just kept launching them at the alien. Each dagger was thrown with precision, only missing its mark due to the alien's magic, but Squidward couldn't follow them all and finally, he wasn't quite quick enough and one stabbed him in the shoulder. 

It was then that the break Tony had received, by his opponent also being distracted by Loki's death defying, ended. The axe hit him, and Tony went flying, with the giant alien running after him. Then suddenly he was going through a portal and crash landing in Central Park. Interesting. 

"How are we doing?" Tony looked up from his own personal crater, it seemed that Bruce had gotten here first. 

"We could really use some help." Tony said shortly. 

"I know but he won't come out." 

Facing Bruce, Tony heard rather than saw the axe flying at him. He swung around to dodge but the action was completely unnecessary as the axe was stopped just short of him. 

"What's up Mr. Stark?" Said a suspiciously young sounding voice. Tony practically groaned. He was in New York. Of course, the kid would show up. 

"Kid, where'd you come from?" He asked flying up and firing at the giant. 

"Field trip." Spiderman responded, still grappling with the axe, trying to pull it away from the giant. The colossus seemed to get tired of this and he just walked up to grab Spiderman and toss him away and into the air. Peter caught onto a nearby tree with his webs and launched himself back to where Tony was now grappling with the alien. 

"Uh, what is this guy's problem, Mr. Stark?" 

"He's from space. He came here to steal a necklace from a wizard." 

Peter seemed to take that in stride as between him and Tony, they finally started to get a leg up on this colossus. Tony was starting to wear down by the time Wong showed up. He did some of that awesome portal magic right where Tony had launched the big grey guy. Next thing they knew, they had half an alien. Boom! Tony's feelings towards this magic stuff was starting to get a bit more positive, at least when it was on his side. 

"Ok, big guy's down. Let's go take care of Squidward." 

Wong created another portal back to the block they had started on. Tony was starting to think he needed to get a personal wizard on staff. These portals were way more convenient than flying. They walked up to Loki and Dr. Strange trading blows with the alien. At first, it didn't even occur to Tony to help as he watched them, fascinated. 

Stephen Strange obviously had little fighting experience. He had enough moves that showed he had some training, but he mostly relied on the cloak that seemed to allow him to fly and various weapons or shields created by magic. All told it was still damn effective. Showy, but not particularly inspiring if you are used to watching real combat. 

Loki was a completely different story. Tony wasn't sure where he got the idea that Loki wasn't much of a fighter. True, Tony hadn't seen him do much real fighting in the invasion; Loki had been more prone to speechifying and lurking menacingly. He also couldn't remember Thor ever saying Loki wasn't a good fighter explicitly, but there was something in the way he talked about his brother that gave the impression that Loki shied away from physical combat, relying on magic tricks. 

If this was what Asgard considered a poor fighter, Tony thought they were seriously biased and more than a little scary. Sure, the Trickster's style was significantly different from what Tony had seen from Thor, but Loki wasn't relying purely on magic; he threw as many punches and kicks as he did daggers and flames. He could also teleport, apparently. Disappearing from one side of the alien and reappearing on the other for a surprise blow. That was all disregarding his strength, which in itself was significant; as demonstrated by his grabbing a light pole, still bolted into the ground, and proceeding to use it as a quarterstaff. 

There was a savage grace to the man and a smile on his face that terrified Tony. He was suddenly struck by the idea that Loki shouldn't have lost the battle in New York. If he had been more directly involved, if he had decided to take out the Avengers personally rather than allowing the Chitari army to do so, they could have lost. Despite the god's supposed alliance, it wasn't a comforting thought. 

Finally, with Dr. Strange attaching magic ropes that spit orange sparks to each arm, Loki was able to get in under the alien's guard and cleanly slashed his neck. Tony finally managed to tear his eyes away and it seemed that Wong and Spiderman were just about as struck as he was. Loki looked up at them and grinned that shark's grin. Nope, that really shouldn't have been as attractive as it was. 

"Did you manage to get yours?" Loki asked them. 

"In less time than it took you." Tony couldn't help pointing out. 

Loki looked Spiderman up and down in an appraising way that made Tony feel suddenly protective of the boy. "Yes, but there were apparently three of you." 

"Hello? Magic?" Tony countered 

"Magic can only take you so far when your enemy employs it skillfully as well." Dr. Strange said, struggling for breath. Loki nodded his agreement. 

"I hope you don't mind if I go check that yours is truly dead. I can't afford to let word of my living to get back to Thanos." Loki popped away without waiting for a response. 

"Uh, friend of yours, Mr. Stark?" Peter asked him. 

Tony sighed. "You remember the Chitari invasion?" 

Peter looked at him and somehow conveyed through the suit's limited eye motions that he was looking at Tony like he had lost his mind. 

"That's Loki." Tony offered with a shake of his head. What had they gotten themselves into? 

"Crazy Norse god from space, Loki?" Peter clarified. 

"Don't let him hear that. He seems sensitive about the whole crazy thing." 

"Can he hear us?" Spiderman whispered; the kid was adorable. 

“I'm not really sure." Tony hedged, but hey it was worth a shot. "Lokes?” 

“Call me whatever infantile names you wish, Stark, but kindly leave my given name intact.” The god now appeared instantly next to him. Once Tony's heart decided it wasn't going to burst from surprise, Tony grinned. So that's how it was, he was sensitive about his name? He was so going to drive the god batshit, just hopefully not destroy New York batshit since they had other aliens already working on that. 

"Well that was bracing," Loki said to the group at large with a grin that seemed slightly less fake than usual. 

"Bracing?" Tony scoffed. Seriously? Asshole wasn't even that winded. 

"Remind me to tell you about the army of undead warriors we just fought on Asgard." The god responded. Tony laughed, but Loki just raised his eyebrow. Ok no, he had to be making that shit up. But Tony looked over at Bruce, who smiled as well. 

"The Hulk took out a giant undead wolf." Bruce responded completely deadpan. Tony decided he had absolutely nothing to add to that. Crazy aliens mixing up their genres. 

"I suggest we take this conversation inside," Dr. Strange interrupted. Which, yeah, that was probably a good idea. Tony spared another look for the massive ship hovering over the street. What were they supposed to do with that thing? Oh well, they'd jump off that bridge when they came to it.


	6. Problem Child

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so no space travel for Tony, Stephen and Peter! Now we go a full 180 degree turn from the movie from now on with just little hints and references in the dialogue.

The wizard led the group back into the Sanctum, through entrance hall with a hole in it and into what looked like an informal dining room. Food, yes. Food was good. Loki, of course, immediately made himself at home. He sat in one of the chairs, right foot on the dining table so that he could tip himself precariously on the back legs. Tony itched to casually walk over and tip the guy over onto the floor, but he just took a chair from across the table, spun it and sat down with his arms crossed on the back. Bruce slumped in a chair between the two staring off into space obviously pondering his Hulk issues.

"Two down, two to go." Loki started. "Now would be the time to assemble your Avengers."

"Who put you in charge?" Tony asked, ignoring the way his heart started racing at Loki's directive.

"I am the most knowledgeable, the most experienced, the most powerful..." Loki began.

"The most distrusted," Dr. Strange added.

"With the biggest ego," Tony supplied.

Loki affected an overdone offended face and placed his hand on his heart, but then he quickly switched to a grin.

"Coming from you, Stark. That is rather flattering." Tony couldn’t really argue with that. Loki appeared to ignore Dr. Strange entirely, like he had mostly been doing this entire time. Hmmm, professional courtesy? At the five sets of glares he received, well more like four since Peter mostly just looked confused, Loki rolled his eyes. “What would you propose our next steps be?”

“Well first things first.” Tony turned to Peter. “Go home, kid.”

Peter tore off his mask, reminding Tony again of just how young he was and solidifying his decision. Unfortunately, the lack of mask also meant that he was now looking at the most heart wrenching puppy dog face he had ever seen.  
“He’s a teenager?” Strange asked incredulously. Now Tony was the one on the receiving end of five sets of glares.

“You let a child into battle with you?” Loki asked appearing disgusted, and no, uh huh, Loki did not get to be morally disgusted with him. That was just wrong.

“Well it’s not like I invited him!” Tony defended himself. It’s not like he could really stop the kid either; he was bound and determined to always get involved.

“Hey! I’m not a child!” Peter countered.

“And he does have super powers.” Tony added. Wait, he wasn’t supposed to be defending this. He wanted the kid to go home, safe to his aunt. He turned back to Peter “I know you can handle yourself, but this is big.”

“I know it’s big Mr. Stark! You’re obviously working with Loki of all people so this has got to be seriously big. I can help.” There was no denying that Spiderman had been helpful in the fight. Also, if anything else went down in New York, the kid would get involved anyways and Tony would just worry about him. Perhaps it might be better to keep him where Tony could keep an eye on him.

Tony sighed and Peter immediately grinned, knowing he had won. “If I tell you it’s too hot or you need to get out…”

“I will listen to everything you say, Mr. Stark.” Peter rushed to assure him.

“Somehow I doubt that.” Tony said shaking his head. “Well, looks like you’re an Avenger now, kid. You might as well call me Tony.”

“Thank you, Mr. Stark!” Peter looked like he wanted to jump for joy, but then his face got serious. “I mean, Tony.”

“Does this make me an Avenger as well?” Loki asked, obviously needing to draw attention to himself.

“No,” Tony, Bruce and Dr. Strange all responded together. Loki did what he did best, smirked.

“By the way, my name is Peter Parker, Mr. Odinson.” Peter said holding his hand out to Loki. Tony didn’t miss the slight tick in Loki’s cheek at the last name.

“Just Loki will suffice.” The Asgardian said nodding, but completely ignoring the outstretched hand.

“I’m Dr. Strange.” The Doc said, grabbing Peter’s outstretched hand.

“Oh, we’re using our made-up names, I’m Spiderman, then.” Tony grinned at the perplexed look on Strange’s face. The kid really was a treasure.

“I need to check in with the Hong Kong Sanctum and ensure everything is going well over there.” Wong announced and turned to Stephen. “Call me if you need help guarding the Time Stone.” Strange clapped a hand on the man’s shoulder companionably before he left the room.

“Though I hate to agree with Loki, I do believe the best course of action would be to rally reinforcements. In particular, the one with the Mind Stone so that we can properly protect it.” Dr. Strange said.

“Nope, I believe the next step should be food. I’m starving, is anyone else hungry?” Tony deflected. He really didn’t want to get into this. He knew it was inevitable, but he could delay it, if only for a little while.

“Actually, I do believe a meal would be wise after the battle we just had.” Loki agreed. Loki agreed? That just didn’t seem right. Now Tony was rethinking his idea if Loki was going along with it.

“Alrighty, one of you guys magic us up some food. I’m thinking pizza.” Tony said. Everybody loved pizza.

Strange snorted; Loki shook his head.

“Magic doesn’t work like that.” Strange replied.

“Your science works the same, yes? Something cannot be created from nothing.” Loki added. Since when did an alien viking wizard know about scientific laws?

“The Law of Conservation of Mass, yes. Matter cannot be created or destroyed, only changed. This applies to energy as well and is the First Law of Thermodynamics. They are often used interchangeably since matter can be converted to energy and vice versa.” Said Banner, getting into the discussion.

“Exactly,” Tony responded. “Your magic is energy right? So turn that energy into matter. Very specifically pizza-type matter.”

“The issue comes from the fact that most of the energy I use comes from myself. So using it to create something that I require to increase my energy stores would be redundant.”

“So, you actually store the magic you use inside you?” Bruce asked Loki, getting interested.

“As interesting as all this is…food…starved.” Tony interrupted. It was comforting to know that magic followed at least some of the rules that Tony was familiar with, though. He wasn't immune to scientific curiosity; he'd love to quiz the god later. He was just hungry.

He grabbed his phone, specifically not thinking about the older model currently burning a hole in his pocket. Could the delivery guy come to a war zone? Tony wondered. Who was he kidding? This was New York, of course they would deliver. The phone started ringing in to his favorite place, but he put his hand to the mouthpiece as he thought of something.

“So, appetite-wise. Is it a god thing or a Thor thing?” Loki looked at him quizzically obviously not ready to interpret Tony Speak. “How much do you eat? Thor could seriously pack it away.”

Loki nodded. “Assume the same as Thor, maybe a bit more after that battle.”

“More?” Banner looked at him a little wide-eyed. Tony guessed they hadn’t had a lot of time for joint meals in their travels.

“While normally that isn't true, as I said, my magic comes from myself. Using it and then regenerating my stores requires quite a lot of energy.”

Tony ordered six extra-larges just in case and hung up the phone. “Hey I didn’t even think of asking since Thor likes it so much, do you even like pizza?”

It was then that Tony realized it, with all the talk, there was absolutely no reaction to his dead brother’s name, not even a blink. It was concerning, considering part of their trust was predicated on his supposed reconciliation with his adopted brother.

“I’ve never had it, actually, so I will reserve my judgement.” Loki responded.

Peter looked like Loki had just said that he’d never celebrated Christmas. Then again, Tony guessed, Loki actually wouldn't celebrate Christmas.

“I shudder to think of what kind of food Barton introduced you to while you were here.” Wait, Barton. Mind controlling Barton. New York. Tony reminded himself. They were not here to make friends; Tony didn't trust Loki.

“I didn’t eat.” Loki responded, studiously examining his nails. Oo, lack of eye contact. They were on to something interesting then.

“What do you mean by that?” Bruce asked sharing a look with Tony. He had obviously picked up on this as well.

Loki sighed. “I was a little busy. There’s quite a lot of time that goes into planning an invasion.”

“Losing an invasion.” Tony corrected automatically. Loki scowled.

“But you were here almost a week.” Bruce continued.

“Gods don’t require sustenance as frequently as mortals.”

“But you just said that you use up your own energy stores when you perform magic and you need to eat to restore them.” Bruce countered.

“Indeed.” Was all Loki provided and even that sounded forced.

“Didn’t they feed you on the helicarrier?” Tony asked, Loki had been there more than a day. He was sure it was policy to feed prisoners at least once in that amount of time, right?

“It must have slipped their minds.” Loki supplied with a tight smile. Tony and Bruce shared a look again. They would definitely be discussing this later. Driven enough to go almost a week without food, but completely insane otherwise? Not eating when he knew that would put him at a disadvantage, magically speaking? The more he interacted with the Trickster the more things just didn’t add up. Then again, he reminded himself, master liar. They needed to take everything he dished out with a grain of salt.

From then on there seemed to be a non-verbal agreement to avoid touchy subjects, at least until everyone was fed. Tony and Bruce caught up on the non-serious periphery stuff, Peter listened avidly. Dr. Strange sat with his hands together and raised to his lips, seemingly lost in thought. Loki went back to examining his nails like he didn’t have a care in the world, which Tony didn’t believe for a second.

Then the pizza arrived, Tony tipped the poor boy generously, and they had more important things to put their attention to. Though Loki announced that the pizza was ‘acceptable’ he ate almost three of them by himself. Tony couldn’t imagine how a mom could manage to feed both Thor and Loki while they were growing up. But then again, she was Queen so it probably wasn’t a personal problem. All in all, they did have enough pizza, but just barely.

Tony could feel the discussion coming on so he cut it off at the pass and let loose a giant yawn.

“Anyone else beat? I am. You got any place we can crash, Doc?”

“Yes, there are several extra rooms. This place was designed with more occupants in mind than just myself.” The wizard responded with the slightest frown.

“Great. Well I’ll catch you all in the morning…”

“Tony,” Bruce said, and it was obvious from the tone that he knew exactly what the inventor was up to. “Why are you avoiding calling the rest of the team?”

“There isn’t a team.” Tony mumbled and Bruce looked at him quizzically. “The Avengers broke up. We’re toast.” Tony clarified more loudly.

“Broke up? Like a band? Like the Beatles?” Bruce asked. Tony sighed.

“Cap and I fell out…hard.”

“What happened?”

Tony looked over at the other occupants of the table and back at Bruce. The man seemed to understand. Tony would tell him, later. But he wasn’t going to dredge up all that personal shit in front of the others, especially not Loki.

“Regardless, Stark. I do believe we will need more in combat than just ourselves. And we will need The Vision.” Loki interjected.

“You think I don’t know that?” Tony snarled at Loki. The man actually seemed taken aback by it. “I do have some people I can call. The problem is, Vision is missing. He turned off his transponder two weeks ago.”

“Is there anyone who can find him?” Strange asked.

“Captain America,” Tony said bitterly. “Probably.”

“Can you contact him?” Bruce asked.

“Yeah,” Tony admitted, pulling out the flip phone that he, for no reason that he could ever explain to even himself, always had with him.

“Call him.” Bruce urged. At the face Tony made, he continued. “Thor’s gone.” Once again, Tony glanced over at Loki at that. No reaction whatsoever. So either he was lying about giving a damn about his brother being dead or he had amazing control over his expressions and wanted nothing of it to show. Really both options seemed equally likely.

Bruce had continued talking. “The universe is at stake. What could possibly matter compared to that?”

Tony knew he had to. He knew he was going to, but “Could I just have the night?” he asked.

He concentrated on Bruce; he didn’t need to see the other’s faces to know that they likely disapproved. “It’s late, it’s been a long day and I just think it would go better if we tabled this.”

Bruce nodded and put a hand on Tony’s shoulder.

“Alright, show us to our rooms, Doc.” Tony said, adopting his usual, casual tone.

“First, I don’t trust that one alone in this place. There are far too many objects of value that he could make use of.” Gandalf pointed over to the god of mischief who had the audacity to look affronted. Yeah, sure they had all battled together, but what did he expect?

“All right, who’s going to bunk with Rudolph here?”

Peter, of course, rose his hand like he was in a classroom.

“Yeah, no. I am not leaving the kid with the supervillain.” Peter put his hand back down and pouted a bit. Loki just grinned for some reason. Not that he needed a reason to grin; Tony was sure just the fact that the smile would weird everybody out was reason enough.

“While you all debate for the privilege of being my jailor, I’ll see myself to the room. It has been a bit of a day what with all of my people dying and all.” Loki’s smile looked painfully strained at that, but he turned away and quickly ascended the stairs, Mr. Wizard following closely behind him. Obviously he wasn’t putting himself up for potential roommate status.

“Rock, paper, scissors?” Suggested Tony.

“I’ll bunk with Loki.” Bruce said with a resigned smile. Tony couldn’t help it, he was instantly suspicious. Bruce was far too comfortable around the god. Yeah, sure there was some shared history, but that shouldn’t erase everything he had done.

“Why do you trust him?” Tony asked.

Bruce laughed. “Oh, I don’t. I believe he’s less crazy, but that isn't saying much. He’s a dick. Not just that, he’s the God of Dick’s.”

That made Tony laugh. Man, he had seriously missed his friend. “So….” He prodded.

“Thor double crossed him. Left him on Sakaar with an obedience disk.” At Tony’s quizzical look, Bruce added. “Long story and Loki betrayed him first. Anyways, even with all that. Loki still showed up at Asgard to help defeat Hela and save everyone who was left. He could have gone off and done his own thing, it served no selfish purpose I could see. But, none of us probably would have gotten away from there if it hadn’t been for him.” Ok, voluntarily going out of his way to save lives was a pretty good start. “You also didn’t see the look in his eyes when Thanos was torturing Thor. I know he’s a liar, but I just don’t think he was faking it.”

Tony just looked at Bruce skeptically, not all bad still didn't mean trustworthy.

“Tony, I know you haven’t missed that there are some things that just don’t fit with his attack, with how he was. In some ways he seems like a completely different person. There’s more to him, more to this.”

Tony couldn’t deny that. “I just can’t help thinking he has another angle.”

“I'm not saying he doesn't. Talk to him. See if you can figure out what that might be. I’m also not saying he isn’t selfish. If he’s anything, it’s that. But I just don’t think that in this situation his goals are contrary to ours. Afterwards,” Bruce sighed, “well if we all survive, we might have some mischief to deal with.”

“All right.” Tony grimaced. “I’ll go see if I can do the cellmate confessions thing with Loki. I really need to think of more nicknames that bastardize his actual name. He really hates that…”

Tony walked into the bedroom. It was already set up for two people, with double sized wooden four poster beds on each side of the room. There was a side table on the open side of each one, but the rest of the room was empty. They weren’t big on unnecessary décor around here.

Loki had apparently decided that he was too good for the little white covered bed. Instead, he was sitting next to it, his back resting against one of the bottom posts. His legs were folded indian-style, recalling Tony’s childhood when that was acceptable phrasing for it. He idly wondered what they called it in school nowadays.

Most telling was that Loki's head was in his hands, his elbows resting on his knees. The posture, all dejected and tense shoulders, certainly looked like the actions of someone who had lost everything. But then again, Tony knew that he had other titles beyond the God of Mischief, like the God of Lies. Ok, so he had looked up some Norse mythology after two honest-to-Gods had battled on his Tower. If even half of what he had read was remotely true, Thor had been way more normal than he had any right to be.

So if the God of Lies wanted to convince you he was serious about his loss, he would make sure that he was in a compromising position when he knew that someone would be joining him later in the bedroom. Well, not the fun kind of compromising position, but the sad kind. He had a momentary flash of what Loki would look like in the fun kind of compromising position. He banished that thought quickly, wondering where it had come from. We were concentrating on the acting job here.

Sure enough, Loki's shoulders were shaking just a bit, like he was crying. But, he wasn’t, of course. He was probably laughing that he had managed to so thoroughly convince everyone he was on their side. Tony sighed.

No, he wasn’t in over his head at all.


	7. Breaking the Rules

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally we get some one on one time with Loki and Stark. Seriously, this is the reason I am having so much fun writing this. I adore their back and forth. 
> 
> Also, please note, this chapter has references of suicide and torture so if you have issues with that it comes just after the scene break.
> 
> Thanks for the kudos and especially for the comments! I get such a kick reading them!

Loki heard the sigh and fought not to whip his head up in surprise. He had thought the fight to determine who would be stuck with him would go on far longer. He was massively relieved that he hadn’t allowed any tears to spill. Yes, he needed these people to trust him, but he’d sooner die than show that kind of vulnerability to his former enemies.

So he very casually lifted his head up and turned to assess his roommate. Ah, Stark. He had anticipated Banner. They had spent at least a few days on the same ship together and were far more comfortable with each other than they had been previously. Apparently, that hadn’t been enough. Banner still didn’t trust him enough to sleep in his presence. He told himself that it didn’t hurt, not even a little bit. He raised his eyebrow and looked Stark up and down with a mocking smile.

“Look who lost the argument and is now stuck with the supervillain.” He wasn’t sure why, but he was rather fond of that term. It had gravitas, for all that it came with the negative connotations. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that these mortals called themselves superheroes. He felt like even if they were on opposite sides they considered him equal in his way.

“Oh, you don’t scare me, Kylo Ren.” The hero said with his own mocking smile, settling down on the bed opposite.

It frustrated Loki to no end that he didn't understand Stark’s little nicknames. Loki had the feeling they were highly insulting and he would love a good reason to punch that smug face. Loki settled for a growl before he got up too and sat down on his own bed. He’d be damned if he’d allow the mortal to loom over him.

Stark stripped off the jacket he had been wearing, so his chest was exposed. Loki was momentarily mesmerized by the blue crystal in the hero's chest. It reminded Loki so much of the Tesseract's energy; that had likely been why it had been able to counter the Mind Stone when Loki had attempted to bring Stark under his influence. What puzzled the god was that he knew Stark was not a magic user. This was some form of Earth technology that managed to at least approach the power of an Infinity Stone. Loki wished he wasn't so impressed by that. It didn't take Stark long to notice what Loki was staring at. He cleared his throat which tore Loki's gaze from his chest to his face.

“So, that was some pretty snazzy fighting out there, today.” Stark complimented, obviously deflecting. Loki narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “I mean, that would be pretty easy to achieve though if you were working with them.” He finished.

“That seems a little short-sighted, developing a plan around some of my strongest allies dying.” Loki countered.

“Hmmmm… true. And you aren’t short-sighted at all, right? You would never obviously telegraph your intentions, giving your enemies everything they need to stop you… wait! You did that! When you tried to take over New York.”

Loki contemplated how much he actually needed this mortal in the fight against Thanos. He needed to contact the Captain and therefore the rest of the freaks, but he had already indicated that the phone was the only necessary device for that function. Iron Man was useful, but no more so than any other hero. Dr. Strange, for all Loki still despised his arrogance, was far more relevant for his magic. Loki allowed himself the pleasure of picturing hands wrapped around the mortal's neck, squeezing slowly, relishing the frustration that would alight in those brown eyes at his voice permanently silenced.

Loki sighed, he could easily kill Stark, but then he would lose any of the trust he had been building with Stark’s friends. No, he would just have to put up with the mortal for as long as he needed the Avengers. Stark's better hope that it would not take long, for his own sake. The all too familiar dark voice in his head, the one who had been whispering such sweet words of violence growled its displeasure in the rational decision.

“What’s with the sigh? Reliving your failure?”

“More that I am lamenting that you are what this world considers to be a genius. You truly have no idea what that was.”

“That was you getting your tight ass kicked.” Stark responded quickly. Then he seemed to realize the wording he used and pinched his lips.

Loki hummed in interest, “And when during my invasion did you have the chance to admire my ass?”

“I didn’t. It’s an expression.” Did he detect a bit of a blush on Stark’s cheeks? Oh, this was delicious.

“Ah, I see. I must have missed that one. I’m sure it’s right up there with ‘performance issues’.” Loki had known exactly what that comment had meant. Stark had been trying to get a rise out of him and it was certainly a noble effort. It might have even worked if he had not been so used to his masculinity being denigrated on a daily basis in Asgard.

“Hey that was funny! And it pissed you off enough that you threw me out a window so I think it landed.” Stark grinned. Loki was amused by the fact that the mortal seemed sure that it was his comment that had angered Loki and not the thwarting of his plans to take over Iron Man's mind as a distraction.

“Oh, dear mortal. I didn’t throw you out the window for that comment. I was quite enjoying our flyting.”

“Flyting? What the hell kinda Viking word is that?”

“You don’t know? But you are so good at it!” Loki said with complete honesty. Even through his haze of anger he could remember distinctly that entire conversation; the momentary pleasure in bandying words. Then Stark had to be immune to the Mind Stone and it was back to the plan. “It’s a war of words, a trading of insults. I’m not too proud to admit you won by the way, what with me resorting to physical violence. But what’s a little defenestration between friends?”

“Defene-what now? Ok, dude. You’re going to have to stick with the normal words for those of us not raised on the Bard.” Finally! A reference he could understand; Loki did so appreciate Shakespeare. He had the feeling that Stark's self-deprecation was undeserved, though. But why would the mortal choose to present himself as less intelligent than he was?

“So, did you get all your leather style and fancy words from the Vikings? Or was it the other way around?” The mortal asked suddenly. Loki tilted his head in confusion; honestly, he had no idea where this man’s mind was at and how it made these leaps.

“And here I thought you might take this time to ask useful questions about the task at hand or at the very least something to increase your comfort level with my assistance.”

“It doesn’t matter what you think, I am a genius. And I am way too damn smart to come right out and ask you the important questions that you are expecting and already have the perfect answers for, Mr. God of Lies. So why don’t you answer the question?”

“You know, God of Lies is not an official title. I am merely the God of Mischief" Loki responded. Tony just laid into him with a glare, not to be deterred. Loki sighed. "To answer your question they got it from us. We spent quite a lot of time on Migard with the Norse people, they were bound to pick it up.”

“Like how one of your kids was the half-dead queen of Hel? And she was the most normal one?” Tony asked. Loki could tell from the man’s expectant smile that this had been a question deliberately posed to get a rise out of him. Oh, the poor, poor man.

“You know I met Hela recently. Turns out she’s my adopted sister. Actually, she was quite beautiful.” Stark’s face fell and he looked a bit confused. Loki widened his grin. “Stark, most of those myths take place on Asgard. How do you suppose the Vikings would have known about them?”

“Obviously you guys would have told them stories.” Stark responded promptly.

“Indeed, and did it ever occur to you that some of us may have told them…lies?”

Stark’s eyes practically bugged out of his skull. “You made up all that crap about having monsters for children! Why?”

Loki managed to not flinch at the word, but just barely. At the time it had been rather funny, all the horrible stories the Vikings would just believe. Now he knew that if he ever had any children that they would certainly be monsters; it didn’t seem nearly as amusing.

“Why not?” Loki said, maintaining his light tone. “I was young, barely two centuries old. It was funny and incredibly embarrassing for my father. They actually thought he was riding around on a son of mine.”

Stark threw back his head and laughed. Loki was a little surprised at how carefree the sound was. Loki had a sudden pang of jealousy. He couldn’t remember the last time he had laughed like that. Certainly it had been long before Thor’s botched coronation. But then Stark’s laughter trailed off and he smiled then. An honest, friendly smile that was directed at Loki. The God felt the corners of his lips tug up into a smile of his own. Unexpectedly, a small flame of pleasure curled in his center.

“Oh, I have to like you now.” Stark said. “I’m not sure even I would have had the balls to do something like that. Especially when Dad is the almighty king of the gods.”

“Yes, well, that got Thor and I kicked off Midgard for the duration, so maybe it wasn’t the best idea.” Loki acknowledged.

Stark’s face fell, Loki raised a questioning eyebrow. “Now I’m bummed.”

Loki had not anticipated that just the mention of Thor’s name would kill the mood. “Why is that?”

“Because that means that the story of you and Thor dressing up as women isn’t true and that was my favorite thing ever.” Stark stuck out his lip in a mock pout that was rather adorable, uncomfortably enough. Loki barked a surprised laugh.

“Now, I didn’t say ALL of the stories were false…”

“Don’t toy with me, Lo-Lo. I’m fragile.” Loki was tempted to stop right there at the further butchering of his name, but he couldn’t resist.

“I may have dramatized some of the details but…”

“As long as you and Thor dressed in drag, it’s still my favorite.”

“Thor did wear a very fine wedding gown where we had to stuff his bust. He even had a veil to hide his beard; that was 100% true.”

“And you?” Stark prodded, playing right into Loki’s hands.

“My breasts were real.” Loki said with a lecherous gaze. Stark’s face froze in an odd half expression, like he wasn’t quite sure what to think. Loki grinned at him before quickly changing the subject. “Now, I believe the time for silly tales is over, mortal. I will be getting some sleep before the labors ahead.”

He started pulling the sheets that were tucked under the mattress out, arrayed pillows and generally made himself busy facing away from Stark. His smile got wider and wider at the continued silence. If he had known it was this easy to render the mortal speechless, he would have told that story much sooner.

He was just settling in to the pillow when he heard a faint “Damn” from the other bed. It was a blessing to be able to fall asleep with a smile.

 

'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'

 

He was back on that desolate rock. No, he couldn’t be. He had escaped. Hadn't he? But it was undoubtedly the same place he had been imprisoned not so long ago. How did he get here? He looked down at himself. He was in the same clothing he had worn when he fell from the bifrost, torn and bloodied. Had he imagined escaping the ship? Had he dreamed trying to take over Midgard? Just how long had he been in this godsforsaken place?

He was restrained in those cursed magic binding cuffs again. Or was it still bound? He was naked and shivering, and it wasn’t from the cold. Wait, hadn't he just been clothed? His mind couldn't seem to focus on even the smallest details of his current reality.

The Other appeared above him, grabbing his chin to make eye contact. Loki tried to hold the creature's gaze. Tried not to look away, to show his weakness, but he just wanted to hide from that grin. He looked down and the creature laughed. The rasping, grating sound hit him like a physical blow. It hurt, everything hurt. And it had all hurt for so long he couldn’t remember what it felt like to be whole. Had he ever been anywhere else? Would he ever be anywhere else again?

Why wasn’t he dead? Why hadn’t the Void killed him? At the thoughts of the Void his mind reeled and rebelled. No! Don't think of it. Don't ever name it. But it was too late. Swirling colors and sounds that defied description, defied thought, warred in his head breaking down the tenuous grasp he had on reality. It should have killed him; he had meant to die. Why couldn’t he just die?

Then it wasn’t the Other standing over him, it was Thanos. Thanos was waving that golden gauntlet at him, but now it was shining with six stones. When had he gotten the Gauntlet? When had he gotten all the stones? Wasn’t Loki supposed to get the Tesseract for him? Had he already done so? But then, why was he still here?

“Time’s up, little god.” The Titan’s voice rumbled. “Now I have everything and you will long for the sweet embrace of Death.” The world went white and everything was pain.

Pain; hot, burning pain.  
Pain; sharp, piercing pain.  
Pain; heavy, pounding pain.

But never freezing pain. Monsters couldn't be hurt by the cold and he was nothing if not a monster.

“Loki,” Someone called. Yes, he had been Loki once, but now he was a monster.

“Loki!” The voice was frantic, was it his? Why couldn't he remember what his own voice sounded like?

“Loki!” Just stop already! He wanted to scream, but he had no voice. If he was Loki that meant he wasn’t dead. He wanted to be no one. He just wanted it to be over.

He had a lurching feeling of movement. Thanos was gripping his shoulder. Suddenly, his world of white, pure pain darkened. He could hear frantic breathing; he could feel hot skin under his hand and the cool, comforting metal of a dagger in the other. Finally, he could fight back. His magic was freed and he had his weapons. Unseeing, he pressed the dagger forward and was rewarded with a surprised squeak. That wasn’t any sound he had expected from Thanos, could he have really surprised the Titan that much?

“Let’s see how much pain it takes for you to long for Death!” Loki snarled.

“Loki! Stop, please!” That wasn’t the grating deepness of Thanos’ voice, but it was very familiar. Loki blinked and his vision started to clear. It was still very dark, but there was a lamp glowing. He wasn’t in that miserable jail, he was in the Sanctum.

He looked at the man under his hands for a second, his thoughts finally clicking into place. He was on the floor of the bedroom, straddling a struggling Iron Man. His right hand was currently curled around Stark’s throat, his left held one of his daggers in the hollow just above the man's clavicle. There were several drops of blood leaking slowly from where the point had pressed into the skin. Hurriedly, he vanished the dagger and awkwardly dismounted the mortal. He stayed sitting on the floor for a moment, eyeing his surroundings, settling his heartbeat.

Stark, in a rare moment of brilliance, stayed silent. He sat up and rubbed at the cut in his throat, not even looking at Loki. Loki inhaled deeply, held the breath for a count of eight and exhaled just as slowly. He did this on repeat until he could feel his heart return to a normal pace.

He was very familiar with the routine of settling himself after a nightmare, but it had been so long since he had performed it. Years of comfort and safety on Asgard had just about wiped the nightmares away. Seeing Thanos again must have brought it all to the surface. Fantastic, now he probably wouldn’t get another good night’s sleep for months if this was anything like after Thanos had sent him to Earth.

“So…” Stark started, obviously feeling like he had given the god enough time.

“I’m surprised it took you that long, Stark.” Loki responded dryly. He was satisfied that his voice didn’t sound at all shaken.

“It’s funny what someone crushing your vocal cords does for your talkativeness.” Loki looked over at Stark. Sure enough, the man had obvious red fingermarks around his throat that were sure to bruise by tomorrow. He recalled his earlier pleasure at picturing this exact scenario. It didn't please him nearly as much in reality as it had in his daydreams. But that's how all Loki's wishes seemed to go.

“I apologize, Stark.”

“An apology! That was the last thing I was expecting!” Stark mock-gasped. Loki grimaced at him. “Wanna make it a double and actually explain what happened?”

“I am able to admit when I am wrong. I’m not Thor.” Loki shot back.

“And the explanation?”

“You were touching me.” Loki guessed. The man had to have been out of his bed for Loki to have been able to grab him like that. “I don’t take well to being threatened in my sleep.”

“I suppose two truths in a row was too much to ask for.” Stark sighed.

“And what makes you think that was not the truth?” Loki asked, but he could guess what Stark had heard.

“Oh please. I know what nightmares are. I didn’t know gods had them, but there you go. You were yelling bloody murder in your sleep. I tried shouting back at you to get you to shut up and that didn’t work. So I tried to shake you awake. Now I have a lovely little reward.” Loki absolutely did not feel bad for the mortal who pawed him in his sleep. But he couldn’t help but feel grateful; he didn’t want to imagine where that dream would have taken him had it been allowed to go further. At Loki’s silence, Stark scoffed. “Fine. It’s still the middle of the night I’m going back to bed.”

Loki said nothing. He just watched Stark walk over to his bed and get in. He leaned over to turn off the lamp on the side table, but paused just before pulling the cord.

“Do you want me to keep the light on?” He asked, staring at Loki. One of the last things Loki wanted at this point was to seem even more vulnerable, but the absolute last was to be in the dark right now.

“Please.” He said, his voice smaller than he’d like. Stark just nodded and turned towards the wall, back to the light. Loki watched the man for a few minutes from the floor. Stark would now think him a pathetic child. Worse, the mortal had cornered him into pleading for the light. His gratitude was washed away by the tide of humiliation and ire.

Why couldn’t he have shared a room with Banner? He had a feeling that the man with a beast inside knew what it was to be chased by your fears in the night. This spoiled, arrogant hero, currently so relaxed in slumber, had no idea what terrors could attack the mind in the dark. He couldn’t fathom the pain it took to break a god.

Motivated by his wrath, Loki got up off the floor and back into bed. He closed his eyes, his vision a dark orange haze from the light on the other side of his lids. He focused on his breathing and was eventually able to fall into an unsettled, but dreamless sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For any of you Everything Wrong With Fans *Roll Credits!*


	8. This Means War

Loki woke up the next morning with a pounding headache and a dry throat. He didn't remember any further dreams, but it still didn't feel as if he had gotten more than an hour of reasonable sleep. Loki sighed and got out of the bed. He started waking up by stretching his aching muscles. He had fallen asleep in his leather pants, only removing his boots, armor, cape and top. It was not something he was interested in repeating, but he hadn't exactly had the time to pack spare clothes before heading to Earth and he certainly wasn't going to sleep naked with Stark in the room. 

He faced his roommate as he stretched. The man had been in some sort of stretchy exercise uniform when he arrived, so he had likely slept far more comfortably than Loki, in more ways than one. The blue energy in the man's chest once again lured the god's attention, the swirling blue pulling him in. 

"My eyes are up here, sweetheart." At his voice, Loki quickly met Stark's disapproving gaze and scowled. Remembering the degrading interaction of the night before, Loki quickly turned to face the opposite wall and continued stretching. 

It wasn't long before he heard a hitch of breath. It was just shy of a gasp. He had been bending over his right leg in a slight lunge. Remembering the "tight ass" comment of the night before, Loki recognized the opportunity for a little revenge. Well maybe 80% revenge and 20% pleasure. He lunged farther, just about to the point where the leather wouldn't stretch anymore. After a moment, he looked over his shoulder smiling coyly. 

His smile fell off his face at the mortal's expression. It wasn't lust by any stretch of the imagination; it was more akin to horror. Stark's eyes were focused not on Loki's leather clad bottom, but on his bare back. Loki immediately crouched over the end of the bed and pulled on his top. He knew his face was still flushed with some complicated mix of frustration and embarrassment, so instead of turning back towards Stark, he proceeded to put on the rest of his armor, leaving the cape rumpled on the floor. Unfortunately, he couldn't put his boots on without sitting on the bed. 

Loki avoided making eye contact with the hero while simultaneously attempting to look as if he wasn't avoiding eye contact. He sat down on the bed and started pulling on his boots. 

"What...?" Stark started. Loki cut him off immediately. 

"Don't." He said in a voice that could freeze a Jotun. 

Stark cleared his throat and started to get out of bed. He hummed some tune as he pulled together his various devices that he had placed on the bed side table. As he pulled on his jacket, he and Loki accidently made eye contact. Loki tried not to look too proud that Stark looked away first. 

"That's a good look." Stark said awkwardly, making eye contact again. Loki gaped at him. Of all the things he could possibly say... 

"No! I don't mean..." Stark looked shocked with himself at the implication of his words. "I meant the new outfit. It's very space biker. Much better than the whole renaissance biker deal you had going on last time." 

Loki continued to gape at the baffling man. Where the Hel did he get these ridiculous notions? Apparently Stark didn't require additional participants to have a conversation because he continued speaking. 

"Not that it wasn't effective for the unhinged despot thing you were going for, but this is much less bulky. Also, getting rid of the horns was a good move. Those just screamed 'compensating'." Loki just tilted his head listening to the ridiculous hero ramble; he briefly wondered just how long Stark could continue this little tirade on Loki's fashion choices. Apparently not too much longer because Stark shut his mouth dramatically, possibly realizing how ridiculous he sounded. Though actually that seemed like too much to ask; he probably had just run out of aesthetic opinions. Loki didn't want to read too far into how much thought Stark had given his appearance. 

Despite himself, Loki felt a small smile play across his face. As soon as he realized it, he wiped it immediately. He was angry with this mortal. The man was presumptuous and irritating. So why was it so hard to remember that? 

"All right, Lokitty, ready for breakfast?" Stark asked with a grin. Loki's amusement faded so fast, he could barely remember it had been there in the first place. This mortal needed to die, slowly and painfully. 

"If you compare me to a feline again, Stark. I will end you. Universe be damned." 

"Sure thing, Scar." Once again, Stark appeared mortified by the words that had slipped from his lips. Did the man think for even a second about what he was to say before he said it? Loki sensed that 'Scar' was another reference that he did not understand and wasn't a commentary on his appearance, but the mortal was not going to be forgiven easily. 

"Actually, I will stay for a while and meditate. I will follow shortly." He said curtly as he sat down cross legged on the floor. 

"Ok, but don't blame me if Mr. Wizard comes looking for you because he's worried about his staff." There was no mistaking the innuendo there and Stark's grin was wide, proud and not a bit sheepish. Loki rolled his eyes and shooed him away with a hand feeling his tension dissipate just the slightest bit. 

With Stark gone, Loki rested his hands on his knees, shook out his shoulders and closed his eyes. Just as with his nightmares, he started by concentrating on his breathing. Counting the beats as he breathed in, holding it for the same count, and slowly exhaling at the same rate. He felt his heart rate steady and his body relax. He had done these meditations as a boy at the start of his training in magic. A clear head and lack of distraction was essential in those initial trainings. As he had gotten older, he had been able to forgo meditation as his magic had become as thoughtless as his martial training, like muscle memory. 

However, when he had returned to Asgard in chains, angry and humiliated, Frigga had suggested he take up meditation again. It was weeks before he took his mother's advice; he had been far too busy raging and cursing his not-family. But finally, boredom set in and, between that and the guilt that only mothers can inspire, he decided to give it a try. 

Unfortunately, that was all he could do, try, and his complete inability to meditate became his first clue that something was seriously wrong with him. Try as he might he could never steady his heartbeat, could never clear his mind. It had scared him, all alone in those dungeons. He tried to sleep as little as possible already; he couldn't stand the nightmares he barely remembered except for the fear they inspired. When he tried to meditate it was like trying to visit the world of his nightmares. He would get flashes of images that would cause his heart to race, his forehead to perspire. 

It had been like tearing scabs off barely healed wounds. Slowly, he had forced himself through the memories, to confront the images that flashed through his mind. As he did, he found that many of his memories, especially those of past slights attributed to Thor, those around his feelings of betrayal and hate towards his family, had a suspicious blue haze around them. 

As he had contemplated everything that had happened on Midgard, he got more and more angry, this time at himself. He was a complete idiot. His plan to take over that planet could never have worked. By its very nature it inspired the resistance that would stop it, also known as the Avengers. What's more, Thanos would have never left him alone to rule. He would have taken the Tesseract, taken back the scepter and disposed of Loki when it was convenient. It was then that Loki realized that he truly had gone mad. 

This revelation changed nothing. He was still furious with Odin, bitter about Thor and conflicted when it came to Frigga; but he did have to recognize his own culpability in events. To himself, at least. As he slowly put himself back together in some semblance of what he had been, he couldn't help but realize that for all Thor had claimed to still love him, he hadn't recognized just how lost Loki had become. 

Banishing those bitter thoughts, Loki once again worked to clear his mind as he had done every day since his imprisonment. Unfortunately, just as it had been when he had first tried, he couldn't seem to banish the pain. Maybe the nightmare still weighed too heavily in his mind? But he couldn't honestly believe that as an excuse, nightmares had been a given in those first months after his failed invasion. 

No, the image that could not be chased away was the look of horror in Stark's eyes when they took in the mess that was Loki's back. No one had seen him naked since his time with the Chitari, which was actually an extremely depressing thought in itself. Oh, he knew what Thor had assumed when he saw Loki with the Grandmaster. Loki couldn't say it wasn't an option he had considered in his quest for power over the man and, eventually, the planet. But true seduction was an art that couldn't be rushed, and Loki hadn't quite gotten there before Thor came along to turn his plans upside down. Loki was sensing a theme in his life. 

Before Sakaar, he had been disguised in Odin's body constantly; he had been too fearful of discovery to even give it up while sleeping. So, Stark had the dubious honor of being the first to see all of him. Loki wasn't even sure how bad the scars really were. It had been so long since he had worked up the courage to examine them that they had likely healed and faded, at least partially, since he last looked. 

As a rule, Asgardians didn't have scars. Asgard's healing technology was such that wounds healed perfectly without a trace. Centuries of combat hadn't left a single blemish on Loki's skin. But less than a year with the Chitari had left a painful reminder. He naturally healed from most injuries quite quickly, but those the Chitari had inflicted had been continuous, numerous and deep. He had been left to his own natural healing before he had been sent to Midgard and his body could only heal so much by itself, especially with how weakened he had been from lack of food and sleep. 

He wanted to snarl at Stark having further proof of his weakness, his vulnerability. He supposed it could only help him in the long run; pity was a powerful tool. But it still rankled Loki that he had lost control over how he was perceived. If he had only thought for a few minutes about what Stark would see, he could have cast an illusion. He was still working on banishing this ugliness from his mind when he heard a throat clearing by the door. 

Loki opened his eyes to glare at the sorcerer. 

"I thought I had made myself clear. You are not to be anywhere in this Sanctum, unaccompanied." 

Loki grinned at the pompous fool. "I didn't misunderstand. I chose not to abide." He closed his eyes again, but he could feel Strange's presence. He hadn't been able to meditate before, he had no idea why he thought he could now. He got up, shook out his legs a bit and gestured for Strange to lead the way to their meal. 

Loki sat down at the circular table in the empty place between Banner and Stark. A plate had already been laid down before the seat. On it was the traditional Midgardian breakfast he would have expected: Eggs, bacon and toast. He may not have eaten when he was on Earth last, but he wasn’t completely unlearned. It was actually something he preferred to the Asgardian breakfast of whatever meats were roasted the night before, at least in theory. He nodded his approval and began eating. 

It was several moments of silence before his neck started to prickle. As his attention was directed away from his food, he could sense four sets of eyes on him. He looked up at his meal companions, but all but the boy spider quickly looked away. 

"Yes?" He prompted the child. 

"Nothing." The boy responded in that nervous, high voice of his that indicated it was anything but. 

Loki looked down at his plate, at the utensils in his hand. He looked over at the men on either side of him. He appeared to be using the utensils correctly. He couldn't see anything he had done wrong. 

"Am I not following correct protocol in some way?" He asked. He sincerely hoped not. If there was anything that bothered him, it was not knowing the expectations of a situation. He had no issues with breaking rules, quite the contrary. But one needed to know them to properly break them. 

"Oh, no. Not at all!" The boy assured him. Loki allowed a small smile. "It's just weird to be calmly eating eggs with the guy who attacked New York." 

Ah, so this was more doubting of Loki's intentions. That was familiar territory and to be expected. "How would one manically consume eggs?" Loki queried, ignoring the heart of the matter. 

That got at least a small laugh from everyone. Stark, the attention whore, laughed particularly loudly. Loki smiled, but quickly remembered that he was angry with the mortal. So, while the man started spooning an inordinate amount of sugar on his grapefruit, Loki changed it to salt. 

The Trickster looked like he wasn't paying any particular attention when Stark took a bite of his grapefruit and promptly spit it out in disgust. Now the genius had the attention of the table at large as he grabbed the sugar bowl and took a small spoonful and tested it. Finding that it was, in fact, sugar, he immediately glared at Loki. Loki affected an exaggerated "Who me?" face that wouldn't have fooled even Thor. 

"Cute. You know, that's considered an old trick over here." 

"These things become classics for a reason." Loki countered, and the boy barked a surprised laugh. 

"What happened to that greenish-gold glow that always shows up when you do magic? I was staring at my grapefruit the entire time, there was nothing." 

"And how would I play any tricks, do anything discretely, if I always had a glow to announce me?" Loki asked. 

"Actually, I am rather curious about this myself. When you were here last, it seemed like you always had that glow when you were doing magic." Banner offered. Ah yes, he was trying to instill trust. Loki supposed there was little harm in this information. 

"That green-gold you see is excess magical energy being created or dissipated in whatever I am doing. Usually you would only see it when I am performing particularly difficult tasks like illusions. Small things like changing sugar for salt would not cause this excess energy for any sorcerer who had proper control over his powers. " 

"There's no way to do any magic without excess energy loss in the transfer." Dr. Strange argued. Ah, now the sorcerer finally joined in the conversation. Loki had been wondering why the man who seemed to have an opinion about everything had been so quiet thus far. Maybe he wasn't a morning person. But the topic of magic was bound to peak his attention. 

"It's ok, you're young. You'll get there." Loki smiled, reaching over Dr. Banner to pat the sorcerer’s hand patronizingly. He was well aware of how a man with grey at his temple would take it from someone who looked as young as he did. Loki was rewarded with a scowl and Strange pulling his hand away viciously. 

Stark appeared to give this some thought. "But we saw that energy transfer every time you used any magic during your little invasion, not just illusions." He paused, and Loki scowled, the man was far more astute than he first appeared. "One might say you were out of control." 

"One might." Loki said in a way that indicated that one would have to be an idiot, neither confirming nor denying the statement. 

"That would also explain why we saw so little of what you are capable of, magically speaking. If you need the proper degree of control, complicated magic would have been impossible. I swear we saw at least five different things we didn't know you could do in just the battle yesterday, including invisibility and teleporting. But then again, you said illusions were particularly difficult and you did quite a lot of those." Banner spoke in the detached nature of a scholar, obviously ignorant of the mortification Loki was suffering at his words. 

“Illusions are a specialty of mine,” Loki responded with half a thought to what he was saying, “I’ve been doing them since birth.” 

“Since birth? That seems highly unlikely given what you…” The scientist trailed off, realizing Loki wasn’t paying him any attention any longer. 

It wasn't just the implications of what Banner was saying, Loki had already known he hadn't been at his best. It was the fact that Loki had never really thought about it before. He had never really examined the magic he had performed. He never thought about what to do or why, he just did it. In battle, or really anything that didn't involve a strict plan, he gave as much thought into what magic he did as most people did in breathing. 

Loki didn't acknowledge Banner’s words. He looked down at the bacon on his plate as if it was the most fascinating thing he had ever seen. The rest of the table continued with their meal, likely realizing they weren't going to get any further information. After a few minutes of silence, the boy spider, obviously taking after his mentor in his dislike of silence, spoke. 

"Mr. Stark, did you get those bruises in the battle yesterday? I don't remember you getting choked." 

Loki looked up and examined his handiwork, purpling nicely, as Stark self-consciously rubbed his neck. 

"Nah, kid. This was from a 'friend'." Loki could practically hear the quotes around the word 'friend' as Stark looked over questioningly at him. 

Once again, all eyes were on Loki. As much as he generally loved being the center of attention, he could really do with just getting through the rest of his breakfast. 

"I believe I apologized already, Stark." Loki spoke between gritted teeth. "It was not my intention to damage you." 

"If it wasn't your intention to damage, then one might ask why you did so in the first place." Strange interceded. 

"That is between Stark and I." Loki said, clearly ending the conversation. 

"Do you really expect us to trust you when you can’t even answer a simple question?" Strange asked, his frustration showing plainly. 

"There is no such thing as a simple question." Loki replied. 

Strange threw up his hands in a helpless gesture, but Loki was already done. The picture of composure, he picked up his napkin. He wiped his mouth and placed it neatly beside his mostly finished plate. Then he calmly pushed back his chair and walked out of the room. 

Knowing Strange would be joining him quickly so as to not leave Loki alone, the god took the moment of blessed solitude to clench his fists in frustration and seethe. What was he supposed to say? Was he supposed to blurt out all his fears and worries to Spiderman? Was he supposed to cry on Dr. Strange's shoulder over his brother's death? 

Loki had spoken the truth about simple questions. Every question revealed information about the asker, every answer more so about the teller. The process was a power exchange and one Loki was loathe to take part in unprepared. It was a habit ingrained in him for centuries and difficult to change. 

But Strange had a point. This was not the way to develop trust between tentative allies. The problem was, up until just the last few years, Loki had entered every situation with a measure of established trust. When trying to get what he wanted from Thor or any Asgardian really, there was the trust of a shared history. When dealing with other realms there was the trust inherent in his being a Prince of Asgard. Since his fall, he generally hadn't worried over establishing trust. He was either seeking antagonism or fear. He relaxed his posture as he heard the door open behind him. 

Loki spoke without turning. "What took you so long, Strange? I could have stolen at least a dozen of your artifacts by now." 

"There was a discussion over who should go after you." Loki was surprised to hear Banner's voice and he turned to address the scientist. 

"My condolences," Loki offered. 

"I won, actually." Loki narrowed his eyes at Banner's words. "I wanted to talk to you about Tony's neck." 

Loki sighed. "I swear to you, Banner. I was not trying to kill your friend. It was a misunderstanding. One that I am certain will not happen again." 

"Can you be certain of that, though?" Banner asked. 

"I'm unsure of what you are implying." Loki hedged. “Do you believe I am still out of control?” 

"I talked to Tony as soon as he came out of your room. He told me what happened." 

"Stark has no idea of what he speaks." Loki snarled. 

"So, you didn't have a nightmare then? Because otherwise, attacking him with a knife and strangling him looks pretty bad." 

Loki saw the man's point, unfortunately, and deflated. "Fine. Yes, I had a nightmare. I'm sure you and Stark both enjoyed a laugh at how weak I am." Loki could admit it if it meant a small measure of trust, but he couldn't keep the shame from his voice. 

"Actually, Tony wondered what could possibly be so scary as to terrify a badass like you." Banner said with a bit of a smile. 

"What is that man's fascination with my ass?" Loki mused, forgetting his shame momentarily, and Banner coughed in shock. The better question was, why was Loki so pleased about it? 

"No, it's...it's just an expression." Banner said. 

Loki hummed in disbelief. "Yes, that is what Stark said as well. You mortals have a lot of expressions based around that particular bit of anatomy." 

"I suppose you're right. This one just means you are particularly strong and brave with an element of being considered cool. I mean being cool means... you are admired?" Banner seemed a little flustered trying to explain their colloquialisms. Loki barely noticed as he contemplated Banner's words. Strong, brave and admired were three words Loki was fairly sure had never been applied to him. That was all Thor. He was a weak coward who relied on distasteful magic and unmanly daggers in battle. These mortals had seen Thor battle many times, how could they possibly think that Loki could compare? 

Then again, he supposed, they themselves couldn't compare to Thor. The Trickster likely came out favorably when compared to mortals. Nonetheless, he didn't appreciate that warm feeling that seemed to settle in his stomach at the compliment. 

"He also mentioned some....um....scars." Banner continued. 

The warmth in Loki's stomach drained away, replaced with nausea. 

"Stark should learn to shut his mouth." He growled. 

"Yeah, well, that's never going to happen. I'm pretty sure when Tony's mouth stops moving it means he's dead." The scientist said this particularly loudly and laughed. 

"I heard that!" The man in question called from the other room. Bruce and Loki made eye contact and executed synchronized eye rolls. From the look on Banner's face afterward, Loki guessed that it had been as awkward for the scientist as it was for him. 

"Do you want to talk about it?" Banner asked. 

Loki scoffed. "What is there to discuss? Anything that happened to leave scars, both physical and mental, is in the past. Talking about it won't erase them." 

"No, it won't. But you can start to heal." The man prodded. Loki snorted. Sentiment. All that had ever gotten Loki was death. "If you aren't comfortable talking with me, maybe Tony?" 

Loki raised his eyebrow questioningly at the man. Why in all the Nine Realms would he be more interested in talking to Stark than Banner? 

"You're an awful lot alike, you know. I know Thor said more than once that Tony reminded him of you." 

"He had mentioned something similar to me when we decided upon Earth as our destination. He said he believed Stark and I could be good friends. I wonder if Stark was as offended as I at the presumption." 

"I think Thor knows...knew more than you give him credit for." Banner corrected, wincing a bit at his mistake in tenses. "Something Thor knew, that I don't know if you do, Tony was once taken hostage by a terrorist organization. He doesn't talk about it, but he was tortured. He's had nightmares about it since. Probably not as often anymore, but I don't think an experience like that ever leaves you." 

Would Loki persist in always being wrong? He hadn't known about that. He knew about Stark being taken captive and escaping; that had been the birth of Iron Man, but he certainly hadn’t had time to consider the implications of that captivity. He idly wondered if Barton had known and not told him when Loki had been gathering information on his enemies. The scientist was looking at him in that quiet searching way of his and Loki downplayed his pondering with a noncommittal hum. 

"I'm not quite sure why you believe that extremely personal information about Stark to be pertinent to share, but I suppose I'll keep it in mind." 

Banner smiled at him in a way that said very clearly that he didn't believe Loki's bullshit, but he didn't press. "Please do. Shall we try to go have a pleasant breakfast?" 

Loki snorted. "Such ridiculous optimism." But he followed the doctor back to the kitchen just the same.


	9. Shake Your Foundations

Tony watched as Bruce and Loki walked back into the dining room. Loki had the exact same look on his face as when he left, but Tony sensed that he was a bit calmer. Bruce had that effect on people, though the Hulk, not so much. Tony had missed the peaceful energy the scientist gave off the last few years. He had always known if something riled him up, he could always talk to Bruce and he'd feel at least a bit soothed by the end of it.

Loki sat down and dug back into his meal. Bruce and Tony made eye contact and Bruce nodded. Looked like the god wouldn't be killing them all in a fit of rage this morning. Maybe tonight. Tony was sorely tempted to test this new calm in the god of mischief, but even he wasn't that stupid. Hey! Good for him. Maybe he had matured.

"I believe it's time to call up the Captain, Stark." Loki said far too casually. Tony looked down at his plate and sure enough he had finished. He was suddenly regretting restraining his desire to bug the god. But there wasn't anything he could do about it now, Loki had the point.

Tony fiddled with the phone in his pocket; the more he delayed, the more superior Loki would get. He wasn't sure why it was all of a sudden a competition between him and the god, but it was. Tony pulled out the flip phone, opened it and stared at the one name in the contacts. Was he really going to do this? He looked at Bruce, Peter, Stephen and Loki. Was he really going to do this in front of them?

Tony clicked the call button. It would be better; it would be easier to keep it calm, distant, if he knew other people were listening. He would be less tempted to say something he’d regret.

"Hello?" A voice answered hesitantly. Yep, that was him. Steve Rogers. Fuck. He hesitated far too long before speaking because Rogers continued. "Tony?"

"I need your help."

"I thought there might be something up."

"Fight some aliens?" Tony asked, and he was pretty proud that he sounded almost casual.

"Yes. Tony..." Steve started, in his bad news voice.

"There's a lot to get into." Tony interrupted. "Can you get to New York?"

"The compound?"

"No, I want this under the radar. 177A Bleeker Street. Bring everyone you can. It's big."

"We'll be there, Tony." The billionaire could tell that Steve wanted to say more, so he cut him off again.

"Thanks, Steve." He hung up.

Tony would have laughed at the three uncomfortable faces staring back at him if he hadn't been so thrown off his game. Three guesses as to who was the only person who looked relaxed?

"Well that was extremely uncomfortable." Bruce commented.

"Just wait until you see Romanov again." Tony snapped at him. Bruce flinched at that and Tony was immediately chastened. "I'm sorry; I'm an ass."

"It's ok," Bruce said, not meeting Tony's eyes.

"No, it's not. It was a dick move."

"They are coming? Just like that?" Loki asked.

"Yep, that's what happens when people actually trust you." Loki looked contemplative at that, which for some odd reason made Tony feel guilty again. It was probably a side effect of talking to Captain America. You felt guilty for not being perfect.

"So, we wait," Dr. Strange said with a sigh.

"We wait." Tony confirmed.

"Would it be possible for the prisoner to go back to his cell? I didn't sleep so well in my cage last night." Loki asked bitterly.

Both Bruce and Strange looked at Tony, oh yeah, he'd have to go with Loki.

"Yeah, fine. I could do with some quiet time." Because that was what he needed, to sit in the dark and quiet and think about just who he would be facing soon. He turned to Bruce. "Let us know if the world starts exploding during Loki's nap."

Bruce nodded solemnly. When Tony turned to Loki, the man just rolled his eyes, got out of his chair as slowly as humanly (godly?) possible and walked out as if he was heading to his coronation. Seriously, there was no teaching that kind of arrogance, you either had it or you didn't. But Tony couldn't argue with the view.

They arrived in the bedroom and Loki hesitated. Tony wasn't quite sure what was going on. He sat down on the bed, twiddling his thumbs. Loki removed his armor, then his boots, but he otherwise got into bed fully clothed. Ah, so that was the hesitation. He didn't want Tony to see his back again, as if it wasn't obvious what had happened to him.

Somewhere along the way, Loki had been tortured. You didn't get those kinds of scars, numerous and strategically located from battle. Plus, Tony had some info that Loki probably didn't realize he knew. Thor hadn't had any scars. Not one.

It had come up when he had been injured in a fight. His bicep was slashed so bad that a human would have needed serious stitches; it had been just shy of seeing bone. Tony had commented how that would leave a wicked scar, you know, like you did. Thor had just laughed and said that it took far more to scar a god. Thor had also explained that anything their natural super-healing abilities couldn't fix, Asgard's medical tech would, rendering all Asgardians scarless, barring severed limbs.

So not only had Loki been brutally tortured enough that Thor's bicep injury was a mere scratch, but it had been when he hadn't had access to Asgardian medical care. That ruled out torture while he was imprisoned in Asgard, not that Tony would believe for a second that Thor would have allowed such a thing to happen to his little brother. So, it had obviously been sometime after Loki left Asgard and before he was imprisoned. Tony really didn't like the implications of that.

"Stop that." Loki barked from the bed.

Tony was roused from his reverie. "What? I wasn't even talking. Which let's be honest, is kind of a rarity. Or did you want me to talk? Did you miss the melodious sound of my voice?"

Tony could practically hear Loki's eye roll. "No, but I do prefer that to the fidgeting."

"Seriously, me moving my hands was bothering you?"

"It's bad enough from Thor; I can't swat your hands. You likely have several weapons hidden and I'd rather not get blasted in the face." Tony failed to suppress his flinch at the casual way Loki threw out Thor's name.

"Do you have any sense of propriety?" Tony burst out. Seriously? Had he actually said that? Tony Stark? Loki seemed equally mystified. He actually sat up in bed and stared at Tony perplexed.

"What is your issue now, Stark?"

"You! You are now and always will be my issue. Isn't the whole point of this endeavor to get us to trust you to help us with Thanos?" Sure, that name made Loki wince, but not his own damn dead brother.

"Yes..." Loki said finally drawing the word out, clearly not recognizing where Tony was going with this.

"Then you should probably at least pretend that you care that your brother is dead! Especially considering he was a friend of ours." Tony practically shouted. Huh, that was unexpected. Maybe he wasn’t handling Thor’s death as well as he thought himself. Loki's eyebrows practically disappeared into his hairline, but he didn't seem mad. That was a change.

"What have I done that causes you to believe I do not care?" Loki seemed legitimately hurt by Tony's implication. And the Academy Award goes to...

"You talk about him like he's still a given. It's casual. It’s suspicious." Tony wasn't sure how to say it, but it was off-putting to say the least. He hadn't been able to bring up his parents for months after their car wreck. Nope, not going to think of that with Cap and probably Barnes and ugh…

"And that makes you doubt that I care..." Loki continued.

"Yes! You don't just talk about lost loved ones that way. It hurts, especially initially so when you do manage to be able to escape that pain and actually bring them up, it shows." It looked like a lightbulb lit over Loki's head and Tony groaned. That had obviously been a bit too knowledgeable. Loki nodded, and Tony braced himself for the punch in the gut he knew he would get.

"I'm trying to think of how to explain it." Loki said, and Tony startled. Really, no probing questions designed to make Tony cry?

"Do you have any siblings?" Ah, he thought that Tony could relate specifically. Well ha, none of that for him.

"Nope," Tony said simply. But Loki didn't appear to be disappointed, he just continued thinking.

"That does make it harder to explain, not that I would say that Thor and I had a normal relationship even for siblings." The god stopped and pondered some more. Really? He was just leaving Tony's loss where it was? Would Tony ever get a decent read on this guy? He felt like every time he got a handle on the god, something shifted. He was a slippery bastard.

Enmity mollified, for now, Tony may have taken advantage of the god's lack of attention to stare at Loki. He was just so... beautiful. But in a way that was weirdly masculine. Normally people would use the word handsome, and while Loki was definitely that, it also didn't seem like quite the right word.

It was a little strange to him, openly admiring a dude. But especially when he had woken up this morning to the man, shirtless, in leather pants so tight they should be illegal, and staring at him in fascination, he couldn’t really deny the attraction. Sure, he'd gone through the experimentation phase when he was younger. He'd liked guys before, even had sex with a few way back when, but he still considered himself squarely in the hetero camp. Ah well, a little casual lust never hurt anyone.

"Thor was my world." Tony was drawn out of his reverie as Loki began speaking again. He had almost forgotten what they had been talking about. Ah yes, Thor and their brotherly issues. He must have had a weird look on his face as he tried to piece together the thought of calling someone else your world, especially when it wasn't in a romantic sense. At least, he really hoped it wasn't in a romantic sense. Was there anything in Norse mythology about incest being ok? Then again, they weren’t technically brothers. Loki laughed, seeming to read him far better than Tony could read the Trickster.

"Not anything like that, pervert." He said, but were Tony's ears deceiving him or did it almost sound fond? Nah, he was imagining things. Loki sighed and continued. "My first memories are of Thor. He was my first friend. Then he was my hero, my big brother. For a brief time, when Odin was still pretending that there was a chance that I could be King, we were rivals. When I had finally stopped kidding myself, I was resigned to being Thor's right hand, his advisor. The stupid stunt I pulled, bringing the frost giants in to crash Thor's coronation. Well not entirely stupid, I really was only trying to delay Thor's crowning and I stand by that, at least. I wanted Odin to recognize that Thor wasn't ready; I wanted to give myself more time to get him to just listen to my advice. Then we went to Jotenheim and..." Loki trailed off. Was it Tony's imagination or did he suppress a shiver? Well, it was likely to be cold where beings called Frost Giants lived. "Anyways, after that Thor was banished, I found out I was adopted and suddenly my entire world was a lie. I was angry, lost and everything shifted. Everything I did after that was all about proving that Thor wasn't my world. But in trying to do so, I proved just the opposite."

Loki stopped, lost in thought again. Tony got it, kinda. He had no one like that. His whole world revolved around himself mostly. He sometimes had a hard time remembering that there were other people who felt the same way about themselves. Hell, even though they weren't together, Pepper's life still revolved around him to a big extent. He idly wondered for a moment if that would change at all with her getting married. It was bound to, right? But he could definitely understand the weight of expectations. He may not be a prince but being the heir of Howard Stark wasn't that far off.

Oh, well it looked like Loki wasn't done then. He started talking again out of the blue just as Tony's brain was touching into the murky waters that were his feelings about Howard Stark. "Thor's presence has always been assured; his affection, if not his trust, a constant. I suppose my brain just hasn't caught up to the fact that it isn't the case anymore. We call ourselves gods, and you mortals, but we don't live forever. We just live for so long it seems like the next best thing. I believe it makes our deaths that much harder to accept."

Well, that was deep. Tony could see why the man was called Silvertongue. Then his obviously sex-starved brain came up with other possible reasons why he was called that. Shut up, stupid hind brain. A sex joke after all this confiding about his brother's death was inappropriate, even for Tony Stark. That's when it hit him. Loki, of all people, was confiding in him. He was talking about... feelings. Men didn't just do that willy nilly.

Tony had no idea why the Trickster trusted him of all people. Sure, they did have a good bantering rapport which he knew they both enjoyed for all they were arguing. But that was not what friendships were made of, right? Then again, he didn't see anyone else crazy enough to be willingly alone with the god so maybe that was it. Dude, was he friends with Loki? Nah, Loki was probably just using this to establish a better measure of trust before everyone else showed up.

He looked over at the probably not crazy anymore guy and hoped the shock and confusion didn't show on his face. Loki looked back at him and smiled. It wasn't his wide grin that could be either mischievous or terrifying. It wasn't that bitter parody of a smile that meant the opposite. It was just a small, genuine smile. Why did that make Tony far more uncomfortable than anything the god had done thus far?

“All right,” The god straightened up and his expression went back to his normal superiority. “Your turn, Stark.”

“What?” Tony asked, confused by the sudden change in tone.

“I revealed something emotionally significant to me, you must do so in exchange.” At Tony’s gobsmacked expression he tsked and continued. “You didn’t expect me to give you so much information and ask nothing in return, did you?”

“Wait, this was a game?” Tony’s surprise was fading into frustration. That bastard! “Was any of that the truth?”

Loki’s flat expression would have made him laugh if he wasn’t the one being conned here. “You don’t honestly expect me to answer that, do you?”

Tony did laugh then, some of the frustration dissipating. What did he really expect? Loki grinned back at him.

“I have no idea what to talk about,” Tony said honestly. What could the 1,000-year-old alien possibly care about?

“You could tell me what happened with Captain America.” Well yeah, there was that.

“I’m not sure all that Thor stuff was worth such a juicy story.” Tony deflected.

Loki laughed. “You would be wrong. Speak, Stark.”

“Fine, you get the Cliff’s Notes version.” Tony said. And he explicitly didn’t explain the reference because Loki wasn’t the only expert in unbalanced information exchange. Tony had gone through the whole story with Bruce that morning, it didn’t feel quite as hard to explain it to Loki, especially since he had no intention of going in depth into the tough parts.

“There were a few events where people got hurt, quite a lot of people. The government wanted accountability for people acting in the role of ‘superheroes’. I felt responsible, was responsible for Sokovia in particular. I supported the regulation; I felt like it could only help people if there were boundaries, ways to try to limit the destruction we could cause. Rogers felt like the government wasn’t the right people to decide our actions, that we had a moral imperative to make our own choices.” Which was all well and good when you’re Captain Fucking America, but what about the rest of us? Where’s the moral high ground when you have information about your friend’s parents… Tony stopped and took a deep breath.

He looked over at Loki who was staring at him searchingly. The guy could obviously tell that this was more than just a dispute over regulations.

“Some people took Cap’s side, some mine. My side happened to be the one on the side of the law. We fought; they became criminals, end of story.” Tony challengingly met Loki’s eyes, those intense green eyes, and wondered if Loki was going to call him out on the missing pieces.

Loki hummed in thought as if he was pondering the same thing, but he just nodded. “It’s the truth, even if it isn’t the whole truth.” Wait, could Loki actually detect lies? Had Tony lied to him yet? He would ask, but he knew that he wouldn’t get an acceptable answer, if Loki answered at all.

“And you’re going to just let me get away with that?” Tony couldn’t help but press his luck.

“Well I still say you are in my debt. I was far more revealing; that had absolutely no emotion, which I believe was my stipulation.”

"It sucked." Wasn't that just the understatement of the century?

"Sucking is not an emotion." Loki said deadpan. Tony couldn't help it though, he laughed.

"I suppose not, but it's all you are getting."

"Oh? Am I getting sucked?" Loki asked with a wicked grin, Tony's face went about five shades of red. This guy was worse than him! Damn, now he was picturing it. He could feel his face get redder.

He wasn't used to people winning against him with words. He was the one with no shame, with the witty repartee; he made other people blush.

"You blush so prettily I'm thinking of clearing your debt just for that.” Damn if that wasn't both condescending and hot at the same time.

"Really?" Tony asked.

Loki hummed. "Really. Anyways, I'll be there when the Captain arrives. I'm sure I will get all the emotional responses I could wish for from that interaction."

Fuck.


	10. Meanstreak

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so I worked in the barest bit of smut. I swear I didn't plan it, it just happened. Skip the first few paragraphs if that isn't your thing : )

Once again, Loki fell asleep with a smile on his face. He did dream again, but this time it was quite different. 

He was straddling Stark, just as he had been in the middle of the night. But unlike last night, his heart wasn't racing from terror. His right hand was holding the back of the man's neck, not clenched around his throat. His left hand wasn't holding a dagger, but something far hotter. There was also the missing clothing. 

Loki stroked Stark's cock as he rocked his own against him in rhythm. Stark moaned as Loki brushed his thumb across Stark's tip. As he picked up the rhythm, he was abruptly whipped around, and he found himself on his back with Stark assuming the straddling position. Stark's presumption should have annoyed him, especially since Loki was far stronger, but it just turned him on further. Loki grabbed Stark's neck to pull him in for a searing kiss. 

Stark grinded their cocks together and Loki groaned into the man's mouth. Suddenly, Stark pulled away from the kiss, which made the god want to whine in protest, but it was only to trail kisses and bites down his neck causing delighted shivers. They hadn't done much more than rut against each other like teenagers, but Loki felt like he was already so close. 

"Loki," Stark moaned into his neck and Loki grabbed the man's ass to further increase their friction. 

"Loki!" Came Stark's voice again, but this was no longer a moan, but a shout. 

The disparity of the voice to the situation was enough to pull Loki out of the dream. 

"Time to wake up, sunshine. The gang'll be here any minute." 

As Loki slowly came to reality, he had never been more thankful that he usually slept on his stomach. As he was currently sleeping above the covers, his pants would have clearly indicated his current mood. Loki groaned, where had that dream come from? Sure, he had an idle attraction to the man, but he hadn't had a dream like that in centuries. 

"Still didn't sleep well?" Stark asked, obviously reacting to Loki's groan. The tone was sympathetic which, if anything, just embarrassed Loki further. The mortification was good for one thing though, Loki was very much not excited anymore. He got up and started putting his boots on, avoiding eye contact with Stark, which was just annoyingly similar to this morning. He didn't respond. 

"Is that a blush?" At Stark's delighted surprise, Loki looked up. Based on the heat in his face, he was probably the exact shade of Thor’s cape. 

"I slept in head to toe, unbreathable leather. I'm overheated." To emphasize his lack of embarrassment, he looked Stark right in the eyes. He could tell the man did not believe him for a second. He felt like he needed to dunk his head in ice water; why couldn't he stop blushing? 

"Oh...leather...yeah. I'm sure that was it. Either way, princess, it’s quite pretty." Stark smirked at the tables being turned and Loki died a little inside. 

"Well, shall we go? I don't want to miss this touching reunion. Finally, we'll be able to actually start accomplishing something now that the real hero is here." Loki put no heat in his tone, but the rancor was likely obvious. 

Stark deflated like Loki had punched him in the stomach. The honest, open hurt on his face made him look so much younger. That comment should have made Stark mad, inspired his competitiveness. Stark's relationship with Rogers was obviously far more complicated than Loki had thought. The God of Mischief immediately wanted to take back his words, remove that lost look from the face of a man that normally exuded so much confidence. But it was too late now. 

Stark didn't say a word. He just nodded slightly in acknowledgement of Loki’s comment and led the way out of the bedroom. He didn’t look back to confirm that he was being followed. Loki trailed behind him like the chastened child he was. 

Stark led him to the entrance hall where Dr. Strange, Spiderman and Banner were already assembled. Stark went up to stand next to Banner and the scientist threw him a small comforting smile. Loki could hear the engines outside, so it appeared that their allies were here. 

Loki had initially hung back, trying to separate himself from Stark after the awkwardness, but he recognized that wouldn’t do. If the four heroes were there to greet the newcomers with Loki sulking in the back, it would indicate an otherness that Loki couldn’t afford to foster. He needed to appear as an ally. So he walked over to stand on Banner’s other side. The man gave him a brief nod before turning his attention back to the doors. 

The tension in the room was palpable, it indicated to Loki that even if Dr. Strange or Parker had not been Avengers, they were at least somewhat aware of the events that had fractured the team. Loki too felt a certain degree of tension, but it was for entirely different reasons. 

Seeing Banner for the first time again after New York went as well as it could have. Sure he’d been tied up at the time, but he believed that had probably helped turn Bruce’s fear into mere discomfort. That, added to his actions in Asgard, had helped ease their current, generally unhostile relationship. Stark hated him, especially now, but Loki believed that Stark had at least an appreciation for his utility after seeing him in combat and his wit after their discussions. The image of Stark laughing at the truth behind the Norse myths popped into Loki’s mind again before he waved it away. 

Now he would have to start all over again with the rest of the people he had faced in his failed conquest. The Captain was far too moral to excuse any of Loki’s prior actions. The man wouldn’t trust him for an instant. However, he was a leader and Loki couldn’t believe that even with everything that had happened that the man wouldn’t respect Stark and Banner’s opinions. Romanoff had as much blood on her hands as Loki. She was also incredibly rational, not prone to emotional reactions. She would listen to the facts coolly and make her determination. While Loki believed they could work together, he still wasn’t looking forward to her piercing eyes and her probing questions. 

Then there was Barton. The idea of confronting Barton made Loki break out in a cold sweat. He didn’t fear what the man could do. Loki was sure the man would want to kill him, would even try, but he wouldn’t succeed. No, it was Loki’s own guilt that made him fear this encounter. 

He hadn’t been under the Mind Stone’s thrall, but he knew what it was like to have your thoughts and feelings messed with. But at least Loki had had the freedom of his own actions. Barton had been completely swayed by the Stone, by Loki’s will. It made the god sick to think of how much it had pleased him to have the mortals bound to his every whim. 

Loki didn’t often feel guilt for his actions; he did what he wanted, what was in his own best interests. No need to feel bad that it didn’t always work out for other people. Guilt was an emotion that he was uncomfortable with and it left him feeling defensive. Without thought, his hand was suddenly wrapped around the hilt of a dagger. It’s cool weight comforting in his hands. 

“I don’t think you’ll need that.” Banner whispered to him. Loki started, not realizing he had anyone’s attention. As he looked up, it appeared that just Banner had noticed him. He sent the dagger back and gave Banner an apologetic look. 

“Habit.” He explained and went back to looking down uncomfortably. 

“Where do those come from, anyways? Based on our earlier conversations I’m guessing they aren’t created by turning energy to matter?” While Banner did look truly curious, this wasn’t the right time for this discussion. Banner had to realize this, which made Loki believe that he was bringing it up to put Loki at ease. He really didn’t like the feeling of gratitude that welled up at Banner’s actions. 

“It’s an expandable pocket of space that I can access by tearing a hole in the boundaries of our world to another plane. I use it to store items I may need. So, I can’t just pull anything out of thin air, I have to have already stored it there in the first place.” Banner nodded, intrigued. He appeared to be about to ask a question when the doors opened. 

In walked a group of five people. Loki was immediately on edge, why so few? At the forefront was a man who was undeniably Captain America, despite how much he had changed. His hair was longer, and he had a beard that suited him rather well. Gone was the bright red, white and blue of his previous outfit, replaced with something far more understated. His shield was also noticeably absent. 

To the Captain’s right was Romanoff. She had changed her hair color to blonde, which Loki thought was a shame since her red had been lovely. Otherwise, she looked exactly the same: calm, implacable and deadly. 

Barton wasn’t with them. Loki tried not to breathe a sigh of relief at that fact. He wondered where the archer could possibly be and, strangely, hoped that the man was ok. The rest of the group was unknown to Loki. 

To the Captain’s left was a man with shoulder length dark hair and a very distinct metal arm. He had a dark look on his face and appeared to be trying to avoid any eye contact. On the metal man’s other side was a dark-skinned man with his hair cropped very short, dressed similarly to Captain America, but with a metal bag strapped to his back. Wrapping up the group was a woman on the other side of Romanoff. She had red hair that matched the rest of her outfit, but that wasn’t what stood out to Loki. She had power. This wasn’t all-together surprising as Strange did as well, but her power felt very much like the Infinity Stones. It didn’t feel like she held one of the stones, but like the power was contained within her, just altered to reflect her mortal form. 

For a moment, the two groups of five stood parallel to one another, just examining the other side, no words. Loki had never been a patient person. He was just about ready to burst in with some comment that would likely make everyone hate him, when someone else spoke first. It was probably for the best. 

“What is he doing here?” Natasha asked. Her voice held no inflection of shock or anger, but her eyes and nod indicated she was talking about Loki. The newcomers promptly got into defense stances. He was rather flattered. All these people, all this tension, and he was noticed first. 

“Is that Loki?” The Captain asked Stark in confusion. Stark nodded. “Why…?” 

“He’s part of the story.” Stark said coldly. “We should probably go sit; it’s a doozy.” 

“I’m not going anywhere with the madman unrestrained.” Romanoff insisted, standing her ground. The others looked at her uncertainly, but also stayed where they were. If he couldn’t be liked or trusted, this was good too. Fear indicated respect and Loki couldn’t help but appreciate that. 

“He’s a...” Dr. Strange paused as if he couldn’t come up with a word for Loki and gave up. “Ally. He has been here for two days now and done harm to no one.” 

“Except those aliens.” Peter interjected. 

“Except our enemies, yes.” Dr. Strange rolled his eyes. “Now, you are in my Sanctum and I say who goes where. Loki is welcome with us.” 

“Why Doctor,” Loki cooed. “I’m touched. You really do like me.” 

Loki decided the new group might be more comfortable to not have him at their back, so he led the way. He couldn’t resist trailing a flirtatious finger down Strange’s arm. The sorcerer, predictably, rolled his eyes as he jerked back. As Loki glanced back, the Captain nodded at his compatriots and they were led by Strange into the sitting room. 

There weren’t enough chairs for everyone, so Loki chose to stand leaning against a wall so that he could see as many faces as possible, especially Stark’s. The only ones he couldn’t see well were the child’s and Banner’s, but he felt like they were the least necessary. Everyone else took their seats except for Romanoff. The spy walked over to stand next to Loki, close enough that she could easily grab him if he did anything. Loki was uncomfortable, so he did what he always did when he didn’t feel at ease. He made sure everyone else felt the same. 

“So where is our dear Hawk?” He asked Romanoff with a charming smile. All eyes suddenly turned to back him. Perfect. 

Romanoff turned her body to face Loki challengingly, but Stark burst in before she could say anything. 

“Don’t do that. Don’t specifically be a dick and put everybody on the defensive.” Loki was rather impressed that Stark had seen through him so quickly. Still, he couldn’t acknowledge it, so he just raised an eyebrow questioningly. 

“I know that you are capable of not being an ass,” Stark said. “How about you try to prove that to these people, so you don’t completely undermine everything we’re trying to do here.” 

Loki managed not to fidget uncomfortably, but just barely. Instead he sighed as if Stark was completely ruining his fun, but he was going to reluctantly go along with it. 

“I was actually concerned to see that Barton was missing. I do hope he’s ok.” Loki clarified reluctantly. Stark looked at Romanoff with a question on his face as well. 

“He and Scott are both on house arrest, it was too hard on their families with everything. They made a deal.” Romanoff responded to Stark, ignoring Loki entirely now. 

“Who’s Scott?” Banner asked turning around and making eye contact with Romanoff. Loki had already known there was history there from Stark’s comment this morning, but even he felt like squirming at the tension in that look. 

“Ant Man,” Rogers responded after Romanoff was quiet for an uncomfortably long amount of time. 

“Wait, we have an Ant Man and a Spiderman?” Banner looked over at Peter quizzically. 

“I think introductions are in order.” The Captain said and everyone began to list off names and titles and all manner of ridiculousness. The red woman introduced herself as the Scarlett Witch or Wanda Maximoff. The dark-skinned man was Sam Wilson or Falcon. The man with the metal arm was James Barnes, but the Captain referred to him as Bucky, which didn’t appear to be his superhero name. It seemed he didn’t have one. Loki said nothing, content to have them skip him over so he could watch the interactions. 

He had already been named earlier and everyone here should know the man who had destroyed part of New York City. He focused primarily at Stark, since he was the de-facto leader of their particular band. Not for any other reason. If there was anyone Stark was more discomfited by than the Captain it was Barnes. 

Stark did not make eye contact with the man once, didn’t even look at him when he was introducing himself, to the point where it should have been obvious to all. From the interactions, Loki gleaned that Banner didn’t know Barnes previously, so Loki guessed that the additional story that Stark was hiding had something to do with that man. Loki himself was rather curious about the arm in particular. It looked very different from any other technology he had seen thus far on this planet. 

Suddenly, all eyes were once again on him and Loki felt like he had missed something. He had no idea what to say so he just smirked. It generally did well enough for him. 

Banner sighed that long suffering sigh. “Tony said that it probably makes the most sense for you to fill everyone in since you have the most personal experience with the events at hand.” 

“That seems counterintuitive as they won’t believe any of those events if they come from my lips. I think your perspective is likely adequate, Banner.” Loki deflected. Barnes glared at him and Loki had no idea what he had done to earn that reaction. 

“Go ahead, Bruce. It’s not like he’ll be able to keep his trap shut if you say anything wrong anyways.” Loki grimaced at that, but he couldn’t argue. 

Loki didn’t miss the contemplative look Rogers shot Stark at those words. The billionaire’s tone was too friendly with him. Stark wasn’t endearing himself to anyone by speaking so familiarly with him. Unfortunately, there was nothing Loki could do about it at this point, so he just returned to examining the responses to Banner’s story. 

Bruce launched into the tale, starting with his own crash on Sakaar. Loki tried to keep his attention on the reactions, but he found that he mostly spent the time studiously ignoring Romanoff’s presence at his side. Banner did a thorough job of it and he was far more patient with the endless interruptions than Loki would have been. 

Loki did take note that Banner seemed to highlight the god’s positive actions within the story and downplay his less savory ones. It seemed he had Banner convinced enough to skew events to his perspective, whether consciously or not. When Banner got to the part about Thor dying, Loki made sure that he had a sad frown on his face, his eyes downcast, remembering Stark’s comments earlier. As if emotions didn’t exist unless they showed on your face. 

When Banner moved on and Loki looked up again, Stark rolled his eyes at him. Loki was tempted to do something really childish like stick his tongue out, but he could feel Romanoff’s stare boring into his temple. At long last, Banner was allowed to finish his story with Stark calling the Captain. There was several minutes of silence as everyone took in the significant events. 

“I’m sorry about your brother.” The Captain finally said, and Loki realized Rogers was talking to him. There definitely wasn’t trust in his eyes, but there was pity. Loki wanted to scoff, wanted to deny caring a wit for his adopted brother. He could clearly picture in his mind’s eye the fight breaking out, Loki summoning a dagger, maybe Barnes aiding Rogers with Banner trying to calm them. It would be extremely satisfying to banish the pity from the Captain’s eyes, but it wouldn’t solve anything. So, gritting his teeth against his instincts, Loki just nodded stiffly. 

“So now we need to find Vision, between all of us we can protect and possibly even use the Infinity Stones against Thanos.” Stark said. 

“Tony, that had been what I wanted to tell you on the phone. Vision was taken.” The Captain looked quite broken up over the news. 

“A couple of aliens appeared in Glasgow. We couldn’t take them just the two of us and help arrived minutes too late.” Scarlett Witch added, tears in her eyes. 

“A woman with horns and a feline-eqsue male? All in black?” Loki asked. The witch nodded. “The Black Order. I had wondered where they went as all four had left at the same time. They must have broken up to go after each of the stones on earth.” Loki sighed. 

“We’re fucked.” Stark commented. 

“Properly.” Loki agreed and Stark snorted in faint amusement. 

“But that’s just one Stone, right?” Rogers asked. “There’s still three that Thanos doesn’t have. If we protect the Time Stone…” He trailed off at Loki’s harsh laughter. 

“Just three Stone’s, he says. Thanos wouldn’t have played his hand unless he was confident in the location of all the Stones. It’s safe to assume he already has the Reality and Soul stones. No one has ever wielded more than two and no one has ever had the focus of the Gauntlet to harness and control their power. All he has to do is come here and ask us for the Time Stone; as long as he used the Mind Stone we would all be forced to obey.” Loki paused considering. “Well, maybe not Stark.” 

“Why not Tony?” Banner asked. 

“Did you not tell them?” Loki asked Stark. 

“You mean about your performance issues?” Stark asked. Loki rolled his eyes. 

“When I wielded the Mind Stone, I tried to take Stark in his tower. It didn’t work. I believe something about his metal heart stops its power. Its energy feels very similar to the Tesseract.” 

“You didn’t tell me that part.” Stark said, fascinated. 

“No, I was too busy throwing you out a window.” Loki teased. The rest of the group was looking between Stark and Loki, confusion on most of the faces at their interaction. Perhaps they were discussing Loki's failure to enthrall Stark and subsequent murder attempt too casually. 

“We don’t all have Mr. Stark’s arc reactor, but if we can just avoid getting touched by the Stone that shouldn’t be much of a problem.” Peter interjected. 

“You don’t understand, that's the power of the Gauntlet. I may have had to touch someone when the Mind Stone was in my scepter, but the Infinity Gauntlet is much more powerful than that. He just needs to close his fist and we’re all under its spell.” As Loki spoke, the futility of their situation started to hit him. “There’s no way. We’ve lost.” 

Loki felt like he was going to drown under a wave of despair. All this work to get these people together, to find some measure of trust and they had failed before they had a chance to get started. All the power contained in the people in this room and there was nothing they could do. He could have been halfway across the universe, but no. He did what Thor would consider the right thing and look where it had gotten him? He was torn out of his whirlpool of sorrow by Banner addressing him again. 

“How about we keep Thanos from knowing where the Time Stone is in the first place?” Banner asked. “Loki, can you put it in your pocket dimension?” 

“Pocket dimension?” Dr. Strange asked skeptically. 

“A tear in the fabric of this plane that I use for storage.” Loki answered numbly. “And no, Banner, I wish I could. That was actually how I had stored the Tesseract with the same plan in mind, but somehow Thanos knew I had it.” 

“And that wasn’t because you told him.” Barnes cut in. Loki didn’t deign to answer that. What was the point if they trusted him anymore? He had given them all his knowledge, what use was he? 

And so began the arguments. All of the proposed plans were laughably weak versus the might of the Infinity Stones. Not for the first time, Loki wished that he had just left the damn Tesseract on Asgard. If it could have been destroyed or at least lost, they would be in so much better shape to face Thanos. Even just having Thor alive... 

It hit him so hard he practically staggered. How had he not had this idea before? He was an idiot, a blind fool. They hadn’t thought to make use of the one Infinity Stone that actually had possession of. 

“I have a plan.” He interrupted. 

“I hate the sound of this already,” Dr. Strange responded with a finger on his temple. 

“Oh you will, sorcerer. Allow me the use of the Time Stone.” 

“No,” Dr. Strange’s dissent was repeated by almost everyone else, not Banner or Stark though, they stayed silent. Interesting. 

“So hasty, you haven’t even heard my plan.” Loki grinned, a spark of life returning to him; now he was in his element. 

“It involves you being trusted with an Infinity Stone, we’ve seen how that goes.” Romanoff countered. 

“Yes, but that was when I was working for Thanos. I’m working with the heroes; I'm a good guy now.” Loki quipped. Stark snorted. 

“Will you just tell us your idea?” Banner asked, sounding exhausted. 

“I believe there is a chance that if the Tesseract had been left on Asgard, it would have been destroyed. It was no small bit of power to break apart our world. At the very least it would have scattered, significantly slowing Thanos’s progress. If I didn’t have it on the ship, Thanos wouldn’t have known where to attack. If he doesn’t get the Space Stone, it slows down his progress traveling to retrieve the other stones. All it takes is one little change, my not taking the Stone when I go into Asgard’s vaults to start Ragnarok.” 

“That could work.” Stark admitted. 

“Tony, are you are seriously going to trust a guy who tried to kill you?” Rogers asked. 

“I’m currently trusting you aren’t I?” Stark snapped, and Rogers immediately looked chastened. Oh, very interesting! Now they were getting into the juicy parts, as Stark would say. 

“That’s not exactly how it went.” Barnes cut in, coming to the Captain’s defense. Loki was pleased he had guessed Barnes’ involvement correctly. 

“Really? I seem to remember very distinctly being wailed on by a nigh unbreakable metal shield wielded by a super soldier. My suit crumpled like a tin can; what exactly would you call that?” 

Stark was standing, staring between Rogers and Barnes as if he wasn’t sure which one to go after first. Loki oddly found himself standing at Stark’s right hand. He wasn’t precisely sure when he started moving, but he was now mimicking Barnes’ place at Rogers’ side. 

“It certainly sounds like attempted murder to me. Far more violent than my defenestration if I must say.” Loki agreed. Everyone turned to glare at him. Really? Him? He was just agreeing with Stark. 

“Not helpful,” Banner told him. Then he turned to the rest of the group. “Neither is this discussion. I’m not saying it isn’t important. I’m not saying get over it. I’m saying there are more pressing matters to discuss first. I believe Loki’s plan has merit. What do you think, Stephen?” 

Dr. Strange stared at Loki for several minutes. Loki fought a spasm of nerves; this man could determine whether he could save the universe or not. More importantly, he would determine whether Loki could save Thor. 

“It could be done, but I won’t give him the Stone.” He finally responded. Had it really taken him so long just to come up with that? 

“That is particularly unconstructive.” Loki scoffed. 

“And you are being constructive?” Romanoff asked. 

“Yes, I am proposing a way to make this all right! To put us on the winning side. Not just all of us here, Thor would be alive.” 

“We know you want to save your brother,” The Captain started. 

“No, we really don’t know that.” The uninspired Falcon cut in. "For all we know he had Thor killed and this plan is just to help Thanos further." 

Loki turned to him with a growl, his dagger in his hand before he could really think about it. Banner was on him far quicker than Loki would have expected, his hand on Loki’s arm, pulling the dagger down. 

“No offense, Loki. But I feel like we could have a more productive discussion about this if you weren’t present.” Banner suggested. “Could you, you please go into another room? For just a bit so we can get some of this initial debate out without bloodshed?” 

Loki grimaced, but he could see the wisdom in this. That way the discussion would be freer. His current presence, his arguments would likely only weaken his position. He had made his plan known, Stark had backed him up immediately, which gratified Loki more than he knew what to do with. Banner too had made his support known, they could still agree. So, Loki nodded. 

“Not alone he won’t.” Dr. Strange contested. 

“You are debating whether to give me access to the powers of the Time Stone, but still you will not trust me alone in your Sanctum, Strange?” 

“I may decide to trust you enough to have the selfish motivations to make this work. I however also believe that your selfish motivations would lead you to take tools that could otherwise aid current and future endeavors.” Strange responded. Damn these men and their rational responses that Loki had no good argument against. 

“I’ll go to time out with him.” Stark volunteered. The Captain looked at him questioningly. Loki was a little surprised as well, Stark was giving up a chance to talk more? Maybe he just needed to separate himself from Rogers and Barnes, Loki could understand that desire. 

“He is my own personal jailor.” Loki responded, saying the world jailer as if it was a term of endearment and smiling beatifically at Stark. Stark snorted in amusement at the comment, no one else seemed to get it though. 

“Bruce, you know what I’d say and agree with.” Stark pointed at his friend and Banner nodded. 

“All right, Ki-Ki. Let’s go so the adults can talk this out.” Stark said gesturing his arm grandly to lead the way out. 

“You should be aware that I know precisely where I can stab you that will both maximize pain yet ensure that you won’t perish.” Loki informed him, growling about the further butchering of his name. 

“Noted. But if being thrown out a window didn’t stop me, I don’t know why you think that information would.”


	11. Nervous Shakedown

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to start this by saying, I haven't read the comics at all; mostly I have tried to stay true to everything that has been presented in the MCU, putting my own spin on things that weren't explicitly stated in the movies. I am playing seriously fast and loose with the rules of the Time Stone, since those aren't well established in the movies. I do know based on Dr. Strange that there is more than one spell that uses the Time Stone, which tells me there is more than one way to use it; so I'm going off that premise.
> 
> In other news, I have completely finished writing this story! All that's left is my obsessive editing. So here's my question to you, I've been posting chapters every other day. Would you like me to continue that? Or would you like me to start posting every day, with the understanding that if I do so that will give me less time to start working on my second story which will come out much slower? Thanks for following!

Stark and Loki were back in the entrance hall. Loki really didn’t want to go back to the room that he had been spending so much time in; it really was starting to feel like a cell. He waited for what felt like an appropriate amount of time, really only a few minutes, and moved back to the door. He put his ear next to it, but couldn't hear any voices. That made sense, they were rather thick doors. He looked back at Stark to see if the man would object. Stark gave him a thumbs up with a questioning look, obviously asking if it worked. Loki shook his head. 

So, Loki tried his trusty eavesdropping spell. It was simple magic that basically drew voices straight to his ear as if they had no matter to go through. The Trickster couldn't count the number of times he had used it to great effect in the past. Unfortunately, it seemed that Dr. Strange had been prepared for something like this. His magic hit the orange shield made of Strange's own energy and dissipated. He sighed. 

With no other ideas, Loki just sat down on the steps of the stairs and stared at the doors that led out of the Sanctum to the outside world. It wasn’t long before Stark sat down next to him. Loki was surprised to find them suddenly mere inches apart. They sat in silence. Loki guessed it wouldn’t be five minutes before Stark started talking. The man only made it to three. 

“Penny for your thoughts?” Stark asked. 

“My thoughts are worth far more than one cent.” Loki responded. Stark raised his eyebrows, obviously surprised that Loki had understood his question. 

“You’re much better at that stuff than Thor was.” Stark said. 

“Yes, well Thor was an idiot.” Loki said by default. Stark looked at him disbelievingly and Loki sighed. “Reflex. He wasn’t unintelligent, though I did all in my power to convince him as such. But he didn’t have much interest in intellectual pursuits. Also, last I was here I was interested enough in the mortal patterns of speech to pick it up and seek out any meanings I couldn’t understand.” 

Once again there was silence, once again Stark was compelled to fill it. 

“A hundred dollars for your thoughts?” Stark offered. 

“As you are so often eager to point out, Stark, you are a billionaire. Surely you can spare more than that.” 

“Oh, so we are haggling on this? What’ll it take? A thousand? Ten thousand? A million?” 

“I believe one million dollars would be acceptable.” Loki responded, smiling. 

“Bill me.” Stark said. “Ok, lay it on me.” 

Loki sighed, staring forward once again, enjoying the ability to talk without having to look Stark in the eye. Was he really prepared to go into this with Stark? He had confided in the man before, but that had all been a part of an information exchange, his plan to instill trust. He had Stark’s trust, or at least enough that Stark hadn’t hesitated to agree to Loki’s plan. The god didn’t need anything further from the mortal. He could just lie. Find some concern that he would reasonably be thinking of. But he found himself, for one of the few times he could remember, saying exactly what was on his mind. 

“The Time Stone, the ability to change the past. Part of me wishes I could go back to before Thor’s coronation. Before I went mad." At Stark’s smirk Loki barely restrained himself from punching the man. “Ok, yes I admit that I went insane. Happy?” 

The man grinned. “Well no, ‘cause your crazy kind of broke New York. And all because you were adopted, drama queen.” 

Loki lifted an eyebrow in offense. This guy used to be his enemy; Loki was this close to fixing this whole mess just so he could hightail it to the other end of the universe. He shouldn't care what the man thought about him, but... 

“Really Stark?” At Stark’s clueless glance he continued. “I know we don’t know each other well, but we’ve fought together, talked together. Do you truly think me so weak that having just been born to different parents than those who raised me would break me?” 

Stark appeared to think about it for a moment. “Well it would also suck to not really be a Prince, I guess. Didn’t like who your real parents turned out to be?” 

At that Loki laughed, real and long. Something he hadn’t done in a long time. He looked over at Stark and he could see the man’s pupils dilate; his attraction naked on his face. It was nothing Loki hadn’t felt himself the last day, but not now. Not when they were talking about this. 

Loki suddenly realized how close they were sitting. He itched to separate them just a bit further, but he would rather die than show his discomfort, so he continued speaking. 

“That would be the understatement of the millennia.” Loki realized he was picking at his left hand, a nervous habit he had started up after finding it suddenly blue. 

After a few moments of silence, Stark burst. “Ok, I’ll bite; who are your birth parents?” 

“I only know of the one, Laufey, King of Jotunheim. I’m a Jotun.” He couldn’t help the disgust in his tone. He may have made the claim of rightful king to Thanos, but that had all been mostly showmanship, maybe a dash of pride in his various claims. 

Stark raised his eyebrows in alarm. “I’m sensing some hostility here. I mean hey, at least you’re still a prince. They’re a rival band of Gods? Romeo and Juliet kinda thing?” 

“No, a different race entirely. Frost giants.” 

“You’re not that tall.” Loki growled at Stark’s comment. Why had he bothered? This was accomplishing nothing. He was a silly mortal. He just didn’t get it. 

“I’m a runt. It’s how Odin got me. I was tossed out to die because I was so small. They’re violent, blood-thirsty. Barely more than beasts. The royal family brought the monster into their home; but they had the nerve to be surprised and disappointed when it acted like one.” Loki wrapped his arms around his bent knees, retreating into himself. He could still feel the heat of Stark's shoulder and hip just shy of being pressed against him. Part of him wanted to bask in something that was so much the opposite of what he was. The other part wanted to flee from the one person alive that now knew his secret shame. 

“That’s bullshit.” Stark replied and Loki laughed bitterly. 

“Indeed.” 

“No, your excuse for why you went all violent and crazy. It’s bullshit.” Loki looked up at that and Stark actually looked, well, indignant. Loki started to pull away but, Stark grabbed his knee and turned so that they were making eye contact. Stark wasn't strong enough to force Loki to do anything he didn't want to, but the god was surprised enough to let it happen. 

“You lived for centuries, studying magic, relying on your wits, preferring talking to combat. Then you learn you’re a Frost Giant and all of a sudden none of that matters? You're just a completely different person?” 

“It was all a lie, Stark. My entire life was a lie Odin maintained until he had use of me. This very body you are attracted to is just a small part of it.” Loki could have clapped a hand over his mouth. He had very much not meant those words to come out. 

“You sure think a lot of yourself.” Tony snorted, but he waggled his eyebrows suggestively before, seemingly, recognizing the seriousness of the subject and sobering. “Hey! Don’t distract me; I had a point I was making. Do you really think you would have been capable of fitting in with the Asgardians if you were no more than a mindless beast? Odin may have made you look the part, but I doubt he could have changed you that much.” 

The man’s words made sense, a lot of sense. But that dark voice of his, the one that whispered terrible things, let him know that was all just window dressing. He knew who he was inside, a monster. He knew the violence he still longed to wreak, if that didn’t come from the Frost Giants, then where? 

Loki snorted. “That’s what’s so funny. I didn’t fit in. I was the coward who fought with magic. Preferring words to weapons didn’t put me in anyone’s favor. I was an idiot for not realizing something was wrong sooner.” 

“So, what? You go back to before you knew and try to make sure you don’t find out? Or do you tell yourself and hope that past you takes it better coming from future you?” 

“Continuing the lie? It’s tempting, but no. With all Thor’s warmongering at the time, even if events had gone differently, I suspect it would have come out sooner or later. It could possibly have been even worse.” 

“Worse than you trying to kill your brother and then take over Earth?” 

“Maybe not worse for everyone, but possibly worse for me. If Odin had the opportunity to use me to bring peace with Jotunheim? Either marry me off or place me on the throne as the puppet king? It might have truly broken me. I’m furious enough with Thanos for using me as his tool, I couldn’t imagine the same from the man I had once thought was my father. It’s bad enough to know that it was his intention in the first place.” 

Tony appeared to give this some thought, nodding as he worked through the problem. Tony’s hand was still on Loki’s knee, his thumb making comforting little circles. Loki looked at the man questioningly, but he didn’t think Tony was even aware that he was doing it. It made sense, he was an inventor, an engineer, he obviously thought better when his hands were moving. Stark certainly could not be aware of what it was doing to Loki, sending little sparks of pleasure to his core. 

“So no changing before that part then, so we’re pretty much left with crazy pants trying to rule the world?” 

“Charming,” Loki sneered. Of course, Stark didn’t look the slightest bit guilty. “I don't see any way around it. I didn’t start putting myself back together until I was in the dungeons of Asgard and I’d already done so much damage by then.” 

“Oh, so you did actually get punished then? I had kinda wondered, what with the whole ‘you being free to pretend to die so you could replace your daddy’ thing.” 

“Well, I was sentenced…” Loki said surprised he could manage a bit of a smile at that. 

“Uh huh, and how long did that last?” Stark asked, playing along. 

“Well, my punishment was imprisonment for the rest of my life.” Loki said, his mood falling a bit. He couldn’t even imagine what he would have done if that had been carried out. No Frigga, no Thor, just millennia of solitude. He likely would have gone crazy again. He shook himself out of the thought. “But fortunately I was spared thousands of years of boredom by a slight Dark Elf incursion.” 

“This was the sneeze place?” Tony asked and Loki rolled his eyes. 

“Svartelfheim is not that hard to pronounce, but yes. About a year after…” 

“A year!?!” Tony interrupted. 

“Hush! Or do you not want to hear the story?” 

“Yes, but seriously though. One year!?! That’s all you got for your invasion? Asgardian justice my ass.” 

“Extenuating circumstances. As I was saying,” Loki continued, ignoring Stark’s further choked protests. “About a year after I was imprisoned, some dark elves attacked Asgard, looking for the Aether, which you would know as the Reality Stone. Thor, in his boundless wisdom, had found the Aether in his mortal woman and brought her to Asgard. They managed to keep her safe, but at the cost of our mother.” 

Loki wasn’t sure he could ever completely forgive Thor for that. Frigga had made her choice, Loki wouldn’t take that away from her. But it never would have been necessary if it wasn’t for Thor. 

Then again, on the rare occasion when he was willing to stop lying to himself, he knew that he was projecting; focusing on Thor's culpability to deflect from his own guilt. It kept him from acknowledging that in his very last conversation with Frigga, he had said she wasn’t his mother. Even in his lost, angry state of mind he could see how much he had hurt her with those words. Stark was looking at him with the furrowed concerned face again, so he started back into the story. 

“Thor, as he is wont to do, wanted to leap headfirst and follow the dark elves. Odin disagreed and closed the Bifrost. So, he needed a way to get to Svartelfheim by alternate means.” 

“And you knew how…” Tony prompted. 

“Better,” Loki said with a grin. “I was the only one in Asgard who had studied these pathways. So Thor came to me with an offer.” 

“Help him and you get to go free.” Stark completed. There was definitely an edge of tension in his voice. It was understandable; Loki had killed people, had caused massive destruction of his city. It must feel so unfair. 

Loki laughed, a little bitterly this time. “Actually, no. I would help him and then be sent back to my cell. Also, if I made the slightest misstep, he would kill me.” 

“That’s a lot of stick and no carrot.” Stark pondered. Loki furrowed his brow, not sure what this had to do with plants. Stark laughed at his confusion. “I guess knowing our colloquialisms only helps when I don’t epically skew them. What’s your motivation for helping if it gets you, at best, back in jail and, at worst, dead?” 

“Well revenge for mother for one, which was enough motivation in itself. Additionally, even a temporary freedom was enough opportunity to take advantage of. That was why Thor had to provide the death threat. He knew I would look for any chance to avoid going back in that cell. He even went so far as to try to convince me that he believed that the brother I had been no longer existed.” Loki smiled a bit fondly, remembering how dark Thor had been. Loki hadn’t believed it for a moment. 

“You guys take dysfunctional to a whole different level.” Stark offered. 

“Took,” Loki corrected and Stark flinched. 

After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, Stark felt the need to fill it. “So how did you stay out of jail?” 

“I died, remember? Everyone but Thor expected me to run off the moment I was out of the cell, but I did want revenge. I knew that Thor would immediately be suspicious after we defeated the elves so, I took an opportunity. It required an extremely painful stabbing through the gut, but I had been hurt far worse before.” Loki guessed Stark was probably thinking of his back at this point and hurried on. “Then Thor thought I was dead. Better yet, they still had to go after the Aether, so I was left all alone. I transformed myself into a guard and delivered news of my death to Odin. Then it was a simple spell to cloud his mind, place him on Earth and take his place.” Loki finished his story with a little “ta-da” motion of his hands. 

“Ok, I do know you a bit better now, but still. How could you do that to Thor, again? You let him think you were dead twice!” 

“Three times.” Loki corrected automatically thinking of Thanos and the Statesman, and then he couldn’t look Stark in the eye. “To be fair, I had actually meant to die that first time so…” He peeked up at Stark at his pathetic jest, now Stark looked devastated. Well, that hadn’t been his intention. 

“Anyways, we should probably check on them. I know it’s tough but they really should have come to a decision by now.” Loki stood up, walking a few steps towards those closed doors; he just wanted out of this conversation. He had shared more than he had ever done before; he was feeling like an open wound, red and raw. 

“Nice try. You seriously think I’m going to let you leave on allusions of suicide and a third almost death on Sakaar?” 

“Actually, on Sakaar I thought Thor was dead. But that wasn’t Thor’s fault.” 

“Loki…” Stark growled in a way that actually reminded him a lot of Thor. 

“Avoiding the truth is my specialty. I don’t know why you’d suddenly think you were the exception.” Stark jerked at that, like Loki had slapped him. 

“You’re right.” Stark said finally; Loki affected a blank face. He wouldn’t let the mortal see how much this ridiculously pointless conversation was getting to him. “Hey, if you get your way tomorrow then none of this will ever happen anyways, so what’s the point?” 

It was hard to maintain the mask. He hadn’t thought about that at all; none of this would have happened, except if he was correct on how the Time Stone would work, he’d still remember it. He alone. If, after everything, he ever got back to Earth, Stark would be his enemy again or, at best, distrusted ally. Why had he let himself care even this little bit about the man? He knew better than this! 

The only person he had ever been able to count on was Thor, and he had gotten Thor killed. No, he would fix it. Thor would be alive, and Loki could go back to being the Trickster and everything would be fine. He glared at the doors separating them from the heroes, willing them to open. 

Seriously, could they just not accept that it was a good plan? He could escape Stark by going back to their room, but then Loki wasn’t fond of that idea either. He wanted to stay here; there was a little itch in the back of his brain, one he was quite curious to scratch. Everything that had happened today was likely to get completely re-written. He already cared; what did he have to lose? 

Loki strode back over to Stark who was standing on the first step, staring up at the display cases on the second floor, obviously trying to think about something else. Loki lay a hand on his shoulder hesitantly. The man spun around obviously expecting a fight. 

Loki just grabbed the man’s neck and claimed his lips. He felt Stark’s moan and the inventor soon parted his lips to deepen the kiss. The reaction sent a spark of heat down Loki’s center and he wrapped his other hand around Stark’s neck to pull himself in for closer body contact. When Stark’s tongue entered his mouth and started dancing with Loki’s own, the god couldn’t hold back his own groan. Loki didn’t know how long they kissed like that, tongues moving, hands searching. Neither man moved to take it any further, they just enjoyed the touching. 

Finally, Loki forced himself to step away, but he left his hands on Stark’s shoulders. Stark looked at him, eyes half-lidded and slightly dazed. Loki was fairly sure he didn’t look much more composed. The Silvertongue didn’t want to say anything to ruin the moment so he just caressed the back of Stark’s neck with his right hand, looked him in those big brown eyes and gave him a small, but real smile. Stark returned the smile, though far more hesitantly. 

Both men jumped apart when Banner opened the door. Loki started staring at his nails nonchalantly; he had no idea what Stark looked like. After a moment, Loki chanced a look at Banner. The scientist looked between the two of them with that uncertain half smile on his face that seemed to say he knew everything that had been going on. 

"All right, I think we have a plan." Banner said and Stark and Loki followed him back in the room. 

Instead of sitting back in the chair he had vacated, Stark stayed standing at Loki's side. Like they were a team. Strange was also standing, obviously prepared to give a little speech. Loki wasn't entirely sure if this boded well or poorly for his plan. 

"I'm not giving the Time Stone to Loki, that would be dangerous in the extreme and I would have no guarantee of getting it back." Strange started. Loki was about to curse the second-rate sorcerer, but Stark put a hand up, stilling him. "Before you ask, the Time Stone is by its very nature outside of time. It wouldn't just return back to me when the change was complete." So yes, that had been Loki's initial debate. Maybe it had been a good idea to keep him out of the initial conversation. But he still couldn't imagine what conclusion they had come to that was better that his idea. 

"I can, however, use the Time Stone to send you back without you having to possess it. The caveat on this is that the time period is fixed. The spell would only last a few hours at most. Now, that should be enough time to convince yourself not to take the Tesseract. After that, you would just revert to whatever present day has now been created by your change. The one downside to this is that you will retain all your same memories, you won't know of any changed events between when you went back in Time and when you pop back into the present. However, as it is only a few days and it is a relatively small change, you should be fine." 

The feeling of relief that engulfed Loki was so strong he almost felt like he was going to choke. His head was both light and full. They were going to let him do it. He was going to save Thor. 

"And who, might I ask is, going to be the babysitter on this endeavor?" Loki asked. At the doctor's questioning look, he continued. "I'm assuming it won't be you because that would negate the reasoning of keeping the Time Stone from me if you are just going to bring it along. You'll have likely also ruled out either Stark or Banner since you are suspicious of their trust in me. The Captain perhaps?" 

"That was part of the debate, you see, we can't send anyone with you. You would appear in the determined time frame in roughly the same location that you were the first time. So, any of us that went would just appear on earth. The only person close to you at the time was Banner and as he was The Hulk, he would be less than helpful as a chaperon." Dr. Strange explained. 

Loki blinked. Then he blinked again. Something in his brain was refusing to compute. They weren't truly suggesting that they would trust him to do this? Completely alone and unmonitored? 

"Are you all insane?" He blurted. Suddenly, nine very concerned heads turned to give him baffled looks. 

"What do you mean?" Banner asked. 

Loki turned to Captain America. "How could you possibly agree to this? I tried to conquer your world. I was given access to two Infinity Stones and caused devastation to this city. You have absolutely no reason to trust me. You haven't seen me fight. You know I’m a selfish bastard. You are just going to follow along with what others suggest blindly? Are you not a leader?" Loki wasn't entirely sure what he was trying to accomplish with this. He was infuriated, and he had no idea why or at whom. 

Loki took a deep breath and taking the time to do so was enough for him to see the reason. He was getting everything he wanted. That never happened. Loki always failed when it was something that truly mattered. He failed to prove to his father that he was worthy. He failed to prove to himself that his life did not revolve around Thor. He had failed his people. So, if he didn't fail to prove to these heroes that he could change their fates, then that meant that he couldn't do it. He would go back in time and he would fail in some way; that thought terrified him. The Captain frowned at him for far too long. Loki's rage was starting to wane into dread at what he needed to accomplish. Finally, the soldier spoke. 

"Here's the thing, I don't think you're the guy that tried to conquer New York." At Loki's incredulous stare, he smiled a bit. "I may be old, but I haven't gone senile. Yes, it was you, but you aren't the same. It took two minutes for me to be able to tell that. And everything I’ve heard since has only solidified that. I believe that everyone deserves a second chance. I think this is yours. I think you desperately need to save your brother and redeem yourself. This seems like the perfect opportunity for us to selfishly use that to strengthen our odds against Thanos. Even if you have some other plan, some manipulation, if it gets Thor back or even keeps the Tesseract from Thanos a little longer, it could make all the difference." 

"It might save Vision." Scarlett Witch agreed, supporting Loki's suspicion about their relationship. 

Loki looked around at the other faces, not necessarily friendly, but all resolute in this plan. It was a heady sensation. Trust. Something he hadn't had in a very long time. He was suddenly massively relieved that he didn't have any ulterior motives against these people. Oh, he would make sure that events played out in his own favor over theirs if there was a choice to be made, but at least for right now, their interests were in alignment and he could honestly say that he planned to do exactly what he had said. 

Loki turned to Dr. Strange, "Tell me what I need to do."


	12. You Shook Me All Night Long

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for your feedback on the positing schedule! I'm sticking to every other day for now. Hopefully I can get enough of a buffer written on the second story that I can continue that, but it's shaping out to be far longer so I'm not promising anything.

So, Tony kinda tuned out all the magic speak. It wasn't his circus and he didn't even recognize the monkeys. Unfortunately, that meant he was left to his own thoughts, which were flying even faster than their usual mile a minute. He was still pissed at Barnes. Hydra mind-fuckery aside, it was his parents, goddamnit. He still felt completely betrayed by Steve, hated the fact that he needed him. Then there was the crushing despair of finding out Vision had been taken, that their work could all be in vain, just to have it soar into hope with Loki's plan. It was an emotional rollercoaster to say the least. Yet it was all predicated on a measure of trust in Loki, of all people. 

That might be the scariest thought of all, he did trust Loki. Kinda. He sorta trusted that Loki was going to do what he said he was going to do. He trusted that Loki wanted to kick Thanos' ass and save his brother. Now as to what else he was looking to accomplish... well Tony may be a bit concerned about the ramifications of Loki getting exactly what he wanted. 

Of course, all these thoughts were swirling around the biggest WTF of them all. Had he seriously kissed Loki? It felt like an understatement to even call it just a kiss. Had he seriously made out with Loki? It was easily in his Top 10 all time kisses. Maybe even Top 5. He barely trusted the guy, he was mad at him half the time, they constantly argued, but man was it hot. 

But then, this was all completely pointless wasn't it? If Loki did what he said, and please by all that is good in the universe let him do what he said, none of this would have happened. Tony wouldn't remember a thing. But Loki would. How was that going to feel? They would likely be seeing each other again. The Asgardians had been headed to Earth when they were stopped by Thanos. This plan wouldn't eliminate Thanos as a threat. It would only slow him down, so the fight was likely still coming. 

The plan was to cast the spell in the morning, allowing Loki the much-needed food and sleep before going. The billionaire idly debated jumping the god's bones. If he was this good at just kissing, Tony almost groaned imagining how good he might be in bed. But wouldn't that make everything more awkward for the guy in the future? Then again, what if they never got another chance? 

He didn't notice that people were trailing out of the room until Steve was standing in front of him. 

"Tony," Steve said, and it grated on his nerves just hearing Rogers speak his name. "Can we talk alone for a minute?" 

Yeah, no. That was not happening. "What's the point, Rogers? All this is going to cease to exist." 

"It still matters." Rogers insisted. 

"I disagree. Let's not waste our time. Catch me in the next time loop." Tony managed something that could generously be called a smile. 

Steve sighed, but he nodded and left, putting his hand on Barnes shoulder as he caught up with his friend. Tony grit his teeth, willing his heart to stop pounding. 

Suddenly, he was alone. He looked around and nope, not alone. At some point Loki had sat down in the chair that Tony had previously occupied. He had his legs thrown over the arm of the chair casually and was looking at Tony contemplatively. Loki and Tony stared at each other awkwardly and silently until Tony couldn't stand it anymore. 

“So, you want to talk about it?” Tony asked looking away in discomfort, hoping Loki would know he meant their kiss and not what just happened with Steve. When kissing a hot, male supervillain was less awkward than talking about Captain America, there was a serious problem. 

“Talk about what?” Loki hedged. For a moment, Tony wondered if the god was mad at him, but then he caught the smirk on Loki’s face. Touché. 

“Yeah, me neither.” Tony answered. He really didn’t want to think about the fact that it was all meaningless in the end. "We should go to bed." 

At Loki's look of startled uncertainty, Tony rambled. 

"Not together. I mean, yes kinda together, but only in that we are together. Physically. I mean that our beds are in the same room and we should go to them." 

Loki untangled himself from his seated position far more gracefully than he had any right to. Stupid godly reflexes. He gave Tony a searching look before shaking his head and starting to walk out the door. 

"I do believe your brain must be in some way defective, Stark." Oh, he had no idea, Tony thought as he followed Loki to their room, his eyes definitely not on where he was walking. 

Tony couldn’t decide if getting ready for bed tonight was more awkward or less awkward than the previous night. On the one hand, he was far more comfortable with being alone with the Trickster. On the other hand, how weird was it that he was comfortable with him? How comfortable was too comfortable? Did Loki expect more kissing? Did Tony even want more kissing? 

He was fiddling with all the items he was taking out of his pockets before placing them on the nightstand. He looked up in time to see Loki removing his long-sleeve shirt/jacket thing. Loki was facing him, so the scars didn’t show, but Tony did get a pleased tingle at the idea that Loki was comfortable with doing so in front of him. Plus, Tony got to see his abs. They were really good ones, leading in to a trim waist then down into those tight leather pants that clearly showed… 

Loki cleared his throat, causing Tony’s head to snap up to his face from what he was looking at much further down. There was that eyebrow again, clearly indicating that Loki knew exactly what was going through Tony’s mind. The god rolled his eyes, but the smile on his face was fond, so Tony was pretty sure he wasn’t offended. At this point, Loki got into bed, his own bed, and started to get comfortable under the covers. Well that seemed like a clear enough sign. Tony did the same. 

“Good Night, Princess.” Stark called from across the room. 

“Good Night, Stark.” Loki sighed. 

 

'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'

 

It started with a whimper. Suddenly, Tony went from dead asleep to heart-poundingly awake, no coffee necessary. He looked over at his roommate. Loki’s face was in a rictus of pain. His brow was furrowed, sweat pooling in the creases. His teeth were clenched so hard, Tony’s ached in sympathy. It was obvious that the god was trying desperately not to make any noise in his pain; he was only allowing small grunting or whimpering sounds. 

“Loki,” Tony whispered, not wanting to startle the god too much. 

At the sound of his name, the man’s face went slack. It should have looked better, but it didn’t. It wasn’t relief, it was surrender. 

“No! Stop!” Loki commanded, but there was no order in the tone. It may as well have been begging. 

“Loki, wake up.” Tony called in his normal voice this time. The god didn’t respond. His brow started to furrow again. Tony really didn’t want to have to go over and touch him again, not like this. His hand went instinctively to cup his still bruised throat. But he couldn’t just leave the man suffering, it was cruel. 

Finally, Loki let loose a pained shout that froze Tony’s blood. He really didn’t want to imagine what could possibly make a thousand year old god make that sound. He jumped out of bed, immediately switched on the lamp so Loki wouldn’t wake in darkness and headed over to the other bed. Remembering how well grabbing Loki’s shoulder went over last time, Tony held out his hands over the man, trying to think of where he might touch him. 

Tony had no idea where the idea came from, it was just some random notion in the back of his mind that he went with. He took his right hand and reached around to cup the back of Loki’s neck, almost like Loki had grabbed him when they kissed earlier. “Loki, wake up.” He said softly. 

Instantly, Loki’s eyes flew open and Tony was met by a fervent, green gaze. Remembering the dagger at his throat last night, Tony whipped his hand away and took a step back, hands up in surrender. Loki seemed confused at first, but then he blinked a few times, eyes scanned the room and he let out a breath relaxing. 

“So, I’m going back to bed. I’m just going to leave this light on if you don’t mind.” Tony backed away until the back of his knees hit the bed. It was likely overkill, Tony doubted the god was going to come after him at this point. But frankly, when someone is substantially stronger and not insubstantially taller than you, better to be safe than sorry. Especially when he had been recently insane. Loki frowned at him, possibly wondering why Stark would allow his arms around him earlier but didn’t want to come anywhere close right now. Otherwise, the god made no motion or comment. 

So Tony got back into the bed and pulled the sheets over his head and closed his eyes. The silence was absolutely deafening. It was like he could hear Loki’s wheels turning. He turned so he was on his side, facing the wall. He tried to clear his mind but inevitably the image that kept springing to mind was that of a dark cave in Afghanistan. 

Tony sighed, shifted so he was back to laying on his back and pulled his covers to his chest. He looked up at the ceiling, not wanting to see what emotions were on his roommate’s face. There was no way he was going right back to sleep. He may as well say what he wanted to say. 

“I think the worst part was the lack of control. We all deal with pain, maybe not to that extent, but it’s at least intellectually familiar. But knowing you have no control over it starting or stopping. Knowing that if they cared about whether you lived or died just a little less you’d be gone in a second. I hated that. I knew they wanted me alive. They needed me, but somehow that never stopped me from believing that every minute of pain could be my last. Drowning was the worst for that. They’d stick my head in a bucket of water holding me under and every second I believed, ‘Yep, I’m done. This is it.’ But nope, I had another second to live, then another, then another. Until eventually the idea of dying didn’t sound so bad. I had nightmares almost every night afterwards for months. They pop up less frequently nowadays, but I still get a few every year.” 

There was no sound from the other occupant in the room. No shifting of limbs, no change in breathing. Tony sensed he was awake, listening intently, but he didn’t react. Tony waited for the regret to kick in. The feeling that he should have thought before he opened his mouth. The ‘shit, I shouldn’t have said that’. Surprisingly it didn’t come. He didn’t know if it was because of their talk earlier or if it was because he knew, without Loki ever confirming it, that the god had been through the same thing. He just couldn’t seem to regret his words. Suddenly he was able to breathe a bit better. He closed his eyes, listened to his heart steadily calm. He was just drifting off to sleep when Loki spoke. 

“It was the Chitari. Thanos.” Loki finally confirmed. Damn, was that pity? For Loki? “They were very…inventive in their methods, but it wasn’t the physical torture that was the worst. Thanos was able to pull all of my darkest thoughts and feed them back to me. He made sure I knew I was a monster. I knew I was alone. I initially called out for Thor.” Loki’s hitched laugh sounded like it was just shy of a sob. “A remnant of my childhood, perhaps. But then Thanos ensured that I knew that Thor wouldn’t ever come for me. He was well rid of the Changeling brother he had been saddled with. If he ever saw me again, it would be to kill me. So why not use the power that Thanos was offering? Use it to claim a throne, maybe not the one I had wanted, but I deserved a throne so why not Earth? Why not show Thor just how much of a monster I could be and let him feel guilt for his beloved world, knowing he could have stopped it if he had only been strong enough to kill me sooner.” 

Tony shivered. So there it was. It was exactly as Thor had said. Loki tried to take over Earth as revenge against his brother. That wasn't new information, but somehow everything felt different. It wasn’t an excuse. Loki hadn’t been brainwashed, he had made the choice, but Tony could still sympathize. Tony’s torture had turned him into Iron Man, had started his drive to do better, to be better. But he had still razed his prison to the ground; he’d killed dozens of people in just his escape alone. Loki hadn’t escaped by fighting back, he had escaped by giving in; and then he too had killed people, but not to become a hero, to become the monster he was so sure that he was. 

It wasn't the right choice, but he understood what had led to it. If his circumstances had been a bit different... What would he have done if he hadn't had Yinsen with him? There was no fooling himself anymore, Tony couldn’t hate Loki. He still hated what Loki had done. He still hated what had happened. But he didn't hate Loki. 

Loki had suffered as much as any during his invasion. Loki had been hurting, hell he had just tried to commit suicide, and Thanos had manipulated that. Thanos was the ultimate monster here; maybe, just maybe, they could stop him, save the universe and Loki could find a bit of peace. Tony rolled over and had almost managed to fall asleep when a whispered voice came from across the room. 

“Thank you.” 

 

'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'

 

As they silently got dressed in the morning in the same clothes they had been wearing for several days, Tony noticed something different. 

“Is this a formal occasion?” He asked Loki as the man put on his cape for the first time since that first night. 

“Battle isn’t just about strength, Stark. How you appear to the enemy can often have a greater impact.” 

“Who’s the enemy in this scenario? Aren’t you just meeting with yourself?” Tony asked. Of course, Loki looked at him like he was missing something huge. Tony was starting to get really familiar with that look. 

“I haven’t been sent back yet, Stark. There is every chance that we could walk out there and be faced with many people who have changed their minds after sleeping on it. Frankly, I would be surprised if they didn’t. So, I likely have one more battle to wage before I can hopefully fix everything.” 

Tony had been about to say something pithy. Something to the effect of “you better fix everything” but Loki kept making minor adjustments to his armor and cape and Tony realized how nervous the god was. They had made the decision last night and Tony was going to stick with it. He hadn’t come up with any better plans himself. So instead of saying anything that would reveal his own worries and uncertainties, he decided to go all in on the support. 

“You’ll manage. We’ll win.” He said with a smile and clapped his hand on Loki’s shoulder companionably. Loki nodded and smiled a bit himself, but shied away from the casual touch. Tony pulled his hand back confused. 

As they walked to the dining room, lost in their own thoughts Stark wondered about this latest weirdness. They had certainly had their hands all over each other yesterday, shoulders included. Tony had touched him a bit before that, he thought, but other than Loki’s initiated lean on him that first day, there had been no other touching. Certainly nothing light and casual that wasn’t sexual. 

Tony suddenly wondered just how long it had been since Loki had been with someone comfortable enough for casual touching. Likely, everything in the god's life for the last few years had either been solitary or violent. Knowing Thor as he did, Tony figured the guy was a hugger with everyone, but Tony sensed that Loki wasn’t a particularly affectionate guy even without all the baggage. So, had he always been this weird about touching or just lately? 

Once again, Tony was struck with the knowledge that it didn’t matter. He’d never get to know the guy well enough to get that answer. He wondered if the alternate version Tony would. They were almost to the dining room, when Tony realized that this was their last time alone, possibly ever, certainly that he’d ever remember. 

Tony suppressed the desire to grab Loki’s arm and settled for just calling his name. Loki looked back at him confused. As Tony tried to figure out just what he was going to say, the god seemed to realize what was going on and smiled thinly. 

“Are you going to look for me?” Tony hadn’t realized what he was going to ask until it had come out of his mouth. But really, what else was new? 

“Do you want me to?” Loki asked, and it appeared like he was suppressing a smile. Jerk. 

“I don’t know? Ya, I guess. I mean, I don’t want to be oblivious to the whole Thanos trying to take over the universe thing.” 

“And if there was no threat of Thanos, would you still want me to?” Loki asked, no longer suppressing a smile. In fact, he looked surprisingly earnest. 

“Morning!” Peter called as he walked up to them. Tony didn’t groan, but just barely. 

“Morning, kid!” He said instead, smiling and clapping Spiderman on the shoulder. 

“Good morning, little spider.” Loki said, with a rather soft smile of his own. Aw, Loki liked Peter. It actually caused a little warm, bubbly feeling in his stomach. As the three of them walked into the dining room together, Tony tried not to think about what his answer to Loki’s question might have been. Because he really wasn’t sure. 

Morning greetings went all around as they pulled up some more chairs to the dining table that was not big enough to accommodate the number of people they had. There was a full bagel spread with lox and cream cheese and everything. Tony strongly approved and started building the traditional lox bagel sandwich for himself. 

As he sprinkled capers onto his bagel he realized that Loki hadn’t moved. In fact, he was still just staring at the table with his brow furrowed. Tony laughed. 

“You have no idea what is going on here do you?” He asked. 

“What gave it away?” Loki asked, voice dripping with sarcasm. 

“Mainly the fact that you haven’t plowed through two already.” 

“Does he eat like Thor?” Wanda asked with a small smile. 

“I certainly do not.” Loki answered stiffly. 

“Even more.” Tony answered at the same time. 

“The difference isn’t in quantity; the difference is in manners.” Loki explained sounding every inch the prince he was. Tony realized that despite the overly flowery, outdated language, Thor didn’t act nearly as royal as Loki did. The Thunder God probably hadn’t had the need to overcompensate. 

Tony passed Loki his already built sandwich as a mea culpa for laughing at him. Loki accepted it with just the barest sniff of disapproval. Which of course made Tony grin. He then went to work on making his own sandwich. There were eight other people around the table, but suddenly he could feel a certain pair of eyes on him. 

He looked up and Natasha was staring intently at him, eyes narrowed. When they locked gazes, she turned her head to look at Loki briefly, she looked back at Tony and raised her eyebrows slightly. Shit. She had totally pegged them. Not that he was entirely surprised, it was what she was good at. He, of course, confirmed it immediately by his wide, surprised eyes but there was only so much he could do at this point. She stayed quiet though, merely turning back to her food now that her suspicions had been confirmed. 

By the time Tony had finished topping his bagel, Loki was going in for another one. He built it the same way Tony had, just forgoing the red onion, philistine. This one was consumed far more readily. Loki was throwing on ingredients for another before Tony had gotten even halfway through his own. Tony may have been slightly distracted by the lax surprise on the faces of all those who had not yet shared a meal with Loki. 

As the food dwindled, a tension settled on the room. Tony believed Loki was right, second thoughts were inevitable, the question was who would start the ball rolling. 

“I don’t like this.” Falcon had been relatively quiet the day before deferring, as he usually did, to Cap. But it seemed like the man had found his voice today. 

“No one does.” Barnes agreed. 

“I do.” Loki countered with that grin of his that showed far too many teeth. 

“Oh yes, that definitely makes me want to trust you.” Barnes groaned. 

“Is there anything I could do to actually make you trust me?” Loki asked. 

“Probably not, we’ll likely always be waiting for you to screw us over.” Wilson said. 

“Exactly. I cannot prove a negative. The only way I can prove myself is for you to trust me to do so. We’re at an impasse here.” Loki said. 

“Hey guys, I thought this was already decided.” Tony cut in. 

“The decision has been made.” Steve said at the same time. Tony grimaced at the man, but kept quiet from there. 

“So unless anyone has any constructive criticisms for the plan, I suggest we stop delaying. We might as well get this over with.” Dr. Strange said. Everyone stayed silent, some more petulantly than others, but it seemed that no one had any counterarguments. Loki just got up and helped himself to a fourth bagel. He remained standing as he chewed and used his free hand to gesture to the door. 

“Shall we?” He asked, before finishing the bagel in two more bites. 

“So weird.” Steve said as he walked through the door. 

“Where does he put it all?” Wanda asked as she followed the Captain. 

Loki, Tony and Strange brought up the rear as they all went back into the entrance hall. Tony wasn’t entirely sure why they all needed to be witness to this part. He just knew that no one would have been comfortable being left out. They naturally formed a semi-circle with Loki and Dr. Strange facing one another in the center. 

The wizard made a few hand gestures and the pendant around his neck shifted, opening to reveal a glowing green stone. 

“Any last words?” The Doc asked Loki. 

“As my intention is to bring life and not death, last words would be inappropriate.” However, he did turn to face everyone as if to make a speech. “I would just like to thank you all for listening to me. For placing what trust you could that I could hopefully change our fates for the better. I vow to do all in my power to see that this faith is not in vain.” He turned a bit making eye contact with everyone. Finally settling last on Tony. Oh yeah, it was easy to forget that Loki hadn’t always been in the supervillain game. He had been a prince; he had likely led warriors into battle; he was the Silvertongue. All told the man could talk. Tony could practically feel the reassurance wash over the group at large. 

Loki nodded and turned back to Strange. Tony watched entranced as Strange started making some more hand gestures. Glowing green sigils started to appear and wrap themselves around Loki’s wrist. 

Before they could go any further, Tony realized that he actually had some last words he needed to say. Well, one. 

“Wait!” He called. Everyone turned to look at him. He grinned his embarrassment, but he needed to do this. “I just needed to say... yes.” He said, hoping that Loki would know what he was referring to. That Tony really did want Loki to seek him out, regardless of whatever battle needed to be waged. 

Loki smiled enigmatically, and Tony’s stomach may have flipped. 

“Remember, keep the time you want to visit firmly in your head. Do not waver your attention in the slightest.” Dr. Strange said. Loki nodded firmly. Strange waved his hands and the world went green.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Show of hands, who all thinks this is going to go according to plan? Anyone?


	13. Nick of Time

When the green had washed away from his vision, Loki was assaulted by gold. The opulent structures and garish décor informed him that he was once again in Asgard, his erstwhile home. He was in a corridor just around the corner from the Vault. Not sure of exactly how long he had, he started running to go meet himself within the Vault. As long as he could catch past-Loki before he actually left with the Tesseract, they would probably be fine. But it would be better if he could get in before he had put the Crown of Surtur in the Eternal Flame. That would give them far more time for the inevitable confusion and debate before they needed to flee with their lives. 

As he rounded the corner, movement caught his eye. He immediately ground to a halt and cast himself in invisibility. There were two guards standing outside the Vault. This wasn’t an unusual sight per say. In fact, it was a constant sight for all his millennia of life. However, at this point there shouldn’t be anyone in the palace. All the people were getting on the Statesman and all the undead warriors were truly dead. So, what were these golden clad warriors doing standing next to the Vault’s entrance as if this were any other day? 

Loki crept silently closer to them hoping to glean some clue from their movements. They appeared bored, but alert, certainly not the faces of men whose home is being attacked by their long-lost Princess, the Goddess of Death. They weren’t any guards he particularly recognized beyond their faces. Loki got the strong feeling that he was missing something critical. Then, a familiar voice rang out from the Vault and his blood froze over in his veins. 

“Guards!” The voice called. It was panicky, wavering, and it was Loki’s. “Guards, please help!” 

The guards immediately ran through the doors. Loki should have followed, but he felt as if his feet had turned to Uru; they were as unliftable for him as Mjolnir. Soon enough, the guards came back out of the vault lifting an unconscious, but very much alive, Odin. Even as he knew what was coming next, he couldn’t quite believe his eyes. 

His younger self came following behind the guards. His face was tearstained, his eyes red. Loki knew that he was frantic, half-mad already, running the gauntlet between wanting to strike Odin down where he lies and hoping that he would immediately wake and reassure his son, his son damnit, that everything would be ok. 

As Tony Stark would so eloquently put it, fuck. This may not be the worst of Loki’s screw-ups, he had so many to choose from, but it was easily in the Top 5. He knew it! He knew as soon as he had won enough trust to be sent back, that meant he would fail spectacularly some other way. But this? 

It was all Stark’s fault. He just had to interrupt the spell, do the dramatic last words thing and tell Loki that he wanted him to seek the hero out. It had made Loki think of their kiss, and their conversation that had proceeded the kiss. 

“Part of me wishes I could go back to before Thor’s coronation. Before I went mad.” But this was all wrong. He literally came back to just after he learned the truth that starting him down that slippery slope to madness. Then again, he knew he hadn’t really wanted to continue to be lied to. What did his subconscious believe that he could solve by coming back to this point? 

You don’t have to fall. 

The voice in his head was his, but then again not. It sounded odd, intoning. It wasn’t the voice of madness he knew so well. The one that still whispered violence that he desperately tried to ignore. It was different, stronger, more commanding. 

He didn’t have to fall? Loki supposed that was true. Oh, how much that would change. He wouldn’t be driven to further lunacy by the Void and subsequently The Other and Thanos. He wouldn’t try to conquer Earth. Then again, by this point he had already committed treason by letting the Frost Giants into Asgard. But he hadn’t let Laufey in, hadn’t attacked his brother, hadn’t set the Bifrost against Jotunheim. He shivered with the possibilities. 

He had royally screwed up by going to the wrong time. But perhaps he had been given the golden opportunity to right so many more wrongs. It could only help the future, right? This big of a change would mean that when he returned to the present likely much would have occurred differently, and he wouldn’t be aware of any of the changes initially. He’d probably lose the location of some of the Stones, but it was worth it, yes? 

The only obstacle to this miracle was he would not be the one living out the next few days. No, he would need to convince his younger self, his heartbroken self who was descending into darkness as he stood here debating, into making the right decisions. What could possibly go wrong there? It wasn’t like he only had a few hours to do so. 

He remembered following the guards to see Odin settled in his bed; he then sought out his mother to explain that his not-father had fallen into the Odinsleep while they were talking. Loki hadn’t revealed his conversation to his mother just yet, it was too sharp, too new. No, he went to his chambers to think, to plan. 

Loki teleported to his old chambers, heartened to see that even with all his dawdling that his younger self hadn’t returned yet. He sat in his favorite chair in his reading nook, hoping that he remembered correctly the amount of time he had spent with Odin and Frigga; he only had so much time. 

In the present, it would be just a few days until he would never see these chambers ever again. Upon his return to Asgard it was straight to the dungeon, and he certainly had never entered them in the years he had been masquerading as Odin. He could hide himself from Heimdall’s sight easily enough, but the King of Asgard going missing for a few hours was too suspicious for his taste. Even when he had managed to find a reason to exile the Gatekeeper, he had still not wanted to give the game away to one of the most powerful Asgardians, one already suspicious and likely with his eye on him. 

His chambers were exactly as he had remembered them, full of books spread across various surfaces and trinkets acquired from his travels with Thor. His preferred color green was evident in most of the fabrics in the room: the curtains, bedclothes and chairs. His room lacked the usual gold opulence of the rest of the palace, he found dark woods to be far more soothing than gleaming metal. 

When he heard the door to the chambers open, he took a deep breath. Here went nothing. He was visible but stayed quiet as he watched himself enter the chambers. His younger self went straight through to the bath to wash his face and discard his armor. Loki stayed quiet, waiting for his other self to return and notice him. When younger-Loki did return his sharp eyes immediately noticed the figure lounging in his favorite chair. 

“What the Hel are you doing in my chambers? Get out!” He yelled, obviously forgetting in all the chaos that his chambers were spelled to keep all but himself out without an invitation. 

Loki got up from the chair, but he didn’t move towards the door, instead he turned around to face himself. At the sight, his younger self’s already pale face was drained of all remaining color. It wasn’t that Loki was unused to looking at himself standing nearby, he did have a propensity for making doubles, but those doubles were always as Loki currently appeared. So few years and yet, how different he looked. 

Clothing aside, he had filled out a bit, battle being a bit more frequent nowadays than before. He had also given up on straightening his hair every day and it had grown long and wavy with neglect. Most telling was the tension in every muscle of his younger self. He remembered very clearly the anguish he was currently going through. Seeing a double that was him and yet not him really couldn’t have helped matters. 

“How?” His younger self started. 

“No, your magic hasn’t run away from you. I’m not a double, I am you. Just the you from several years in the future.” he responded. 

Younger-Loki’s eyes went intense with suspicion, but that wasn’t a surprise. As a liar and trickster Loki believed nothing he heard and only half of what he saw. 

“Time travel?” He questioned dubiously. Loki had not known of any spells that would do so by this point, so it was a valid question. Yet he had, at this point in time, heard of the Infinity Stones, even if he was not nearly as learned as Loki currently was in the matter. 

“The Time Stone.” Older-Loki responded anticipating the next question. He still flinched when it came. 

“Prove you are me.” His younger self asked, and Loki really didn’t want to. There were so many secrets that they had, he probably could have used any number of them, but he would always be suspicious that someone else could have found out those little tricks. There was one thing that this Loki knew for a fact no one else knew except a man who was currently asleep. 

“You just came from your mother’s chambers. You were telling her that the Allfather has fallen into the Odinsleep during a conversation you two were having in the vault.” He could see the mouth opening to counter his easily gained information and he held his hand up to hold it. “You did not tell your mother of the content of that conversation.” 

Now past-Loki looked nervous, he fought to keep his own voice from wavering. “You were in the vault because you needed access to the Casket of Winters. You needed to somehow prove that you weren’t what you thought you were. But when you held it and your hands started to turn blue, Odin confronted you. He told you that you were a Frost Giant runt that he had taken from Jotunheim. Laufey’s son.” 

His younger self collapsed in a chair, shock and pain in every inch of his face. Loki decided sitting was probably a really good idea and sat back in the chair he had just gotten out of. 

“Why are you here?” Past-Loki whispered numbly, all the fight gone from his face. 

“Because the next few days are crucial. They are going to effect the course of not just your life but Asgard, Midgard, potentially the entire universe.” At the dubious look he received at this, he smiled. “I know, it seems like just what we would want to hear at this point. But, it’s not because you’re important. It’s not because you’re powerful. It’s because you make some epic mistakes that set off a chain of events that very possibly will lead to half the universe being wiped out. I’m fairly sure that’s not what you want to hear.” He could practically see the wheels turning in that head of his, so he cut the thoughts off at the pass. 

“I know the plans you are working on. You will fail.” He said, perhaps more harshly than necessary. 

“I won’t kill Laufey?” His other self asked. 

“No, you will kill him. But Thor will stop you from destroying Jotunheim.” 

“Thor? How? Why?” This was some tricky territory to tread. Did he just tell the whole story and allow his younger self to make the decisions? Did he provide only the pieces of the story that would lead him to the right decisions? Did he tell him what to do? Did he even know what to do? Deciding that even a half-mad younger version of him would still sense lies and deception, he went for the truth. 

“Frigga will make you king in Thor’s absence. The Warrior’s Three and Sif will immediately distrust you and Heimdall will send them to Midgard to retrieve Thor.” Once again, he had to stop his younger self from interrupting in anger. “You can’t possibly be surprised that they would suspect this is all part of a plan of yours. You’ve never been particularly shy about showing your bitterness, even if you haven’t wanted the throne for a long time now. You did get Thor banished after all, even if that wasn’t your original intention. You’ll send the Destroyer to stop Thor from coming back. You’ll bring Laufey in to Asgard and kill him before he kills Odin, but Thor will have regained his powers and will stop you from using the Bifrost to destroy Jotunheim.” 

“But why? Why would he protect those monsters? If I destroy Jotunheim then there’s no fear for war.” 

“And no chance that you could be used for peace?” Loki asked, knowing where his mind was going. His younger self seemed surprised. “I’m you, remember? I know where your thoughts are going, even if you haven’t fully considered them all yet. I still don’t quite know what happened to change Thor so drastically on Midgard. It had to do with a woman he met, Jane, but I do hope there was far more to it than falling in love.” 

He couldn’t manage to say that last bit without a hint of repugnance. He laughed at the distasteful expression on his younger self’s face. That was something that hadn’t changed at least. Romantic love was a ridiculously idealistic and foolish emotion. If Tony Stark’s face flashed in his mind’s eye for a moment at that thought, well lust was similar, but certainly not the same. 

“But that isn’t what matters. What does matter is that setting the Bifrost on Jotunheim was wrong. I’m still...conflicted, in my feelings on the frost giants. But I do know that an entire race doesn’t deserve to be wiped out because I’m angry at my father, because I can’t accept who I am.” 

“But they’re beasts, all of them. They’re …" 

“The monsters parents tell their children about at night? That is indeed true, but shouldn’t we know better than most that the stories people tell are rarely the whole truth?” Loki sighed. “But even if it weren’t wrong. It won’t get you Odin’s approval. He’ll reject it like he has every other attempt you’ve made to prove yourself versus Thor.” 

“So, what? I should just accept it? Just get over it?” 

“No, I’m certainly not. Be angry at Laufey. Be angry with Odin. Hel, I’m still pissed at Sif and the Warriors Three and they’re dead too.” 

“Dead? How? The Destroyer?” 

“No, it’s a long story that I don’t have time to get into. Ask Odin about Hela, the Goddess of Death when he wakes. What I am saying is not that you shouldn’t be angry, but that you need to direct that anger at those who deserve it. Not the frost giants at large and not Thor.” 

“So, Thor wins, as he always does.” His younger self spat sullenly. Always did, Loki corrected in his own mind. At least until his little brother finally screwed up enough to stop that. 

“Yes, well, what else is new?” Loki couldn’t help sharing in the resentment. “But I can tell you that he will be different. He has learned and grown; I truly think he will be a good king. Especially if he can learn the balance between trusting and suspicion with me.” Loki grinned a bit. “But to do that you need to know a few things. Do not set the Bifrost against Jotunheim, if you don’t then it will stay intact and you will not go into the Void.” 

His younger self went pale again. “The Void? Why would I do that?” 

“Why do you think?” Loki let his despair show on his face for a moment. His younger self went paler, if that was even possible, and swallowed audibly. But he nodded his understanding. 

“You also need to keep close track of the Infinity Stones.” Loki launched into a brief account of Thanos and his knowledge of the Stone’s current existence. As he was wrapping up, green sigils appeared flashed on his wrist. He was almost out of time. 

“I’ll be disappearing soon, popping back to whatever present these changes create. I won't claim to know exactly what decisions you should make; I know you wouldn’t necessarily listen to me even if I did. But please make it a better one. Most of all, I want my brother back.” 

He didn’t see how his younger self responded to this as the world went green.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See? Not according to plan doesn't always mean bad!


	14. Highway to Hell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now we get to see the changes! Thank you all so much for the kudos and the comments!

The first color that presented itself when the green had dispersed was once again the bright gold of Asgard. Loki could immediately conclude that Asgard hadn’t been destroyed. Well, that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, right? He had told his younger self about Hela, maybe they had been able to stop her return. It meant the Tesseract hadn’t been destroyed either, but that didn’t mean that it was in Thanos’ hands. 

The next thing Loki established was that he was not in the prison. This was also a good thing, maybe he had truly avoided his past mistakes. Then everything came into clarity and he realized just where he was. He was in the giant hall that was Asgard’s throne room. More specifically, he was sitting on the throne, the golden staff Gungnir held clenched in his hand. 

So, he was still pretending to be Odin. Loki wasn’t sure what events could have changed so that Asgard was still standing, but he was still playing this same trick, but hopefully it wouldn’t be too hard to ascertain the recent past. Maybe he would call a scribe to write down the historical events of the past few years, that would be discrete enough, yes? 

He was planning out his next move when the doors opened. In walked Heimdall. Whatever Loki had done to get himself to this point, it had not included banishing the Gatekeeper. He wasn’t sure if this was good or bad. 

“Loki,” Heimdall intoned as he walked up to the throne and knelt. “My king, what wish do you have of me?” 

All the hope he had been so afraid to feel fell away in an instant. This couldn’t be good. The fact that he himself being king was bad news to him was interesting; character growth perhaps? But still, it meant that things had gone far sidewise from his intentions. If he was king, Thor couldn’t possibly be alive. 

His mind raced through potential events and outcomes, but with no solid information, he would never be able to determine the likely reason. He needed knowledge and he needed to gather it in a way that would not cause suspicion. Finally, he remembered that he had a kneeling Gatekeeper in front of him. Heimdall’s face was as passive as ever, but there was a hesitancy in his voice when he spoke. 

“My king?” Oh yes, Loki had apparently summoned him. 

“How long have you served me as King, Heimdall?” He asked in a bored, hypothetical tone. Because of course he knew the answer. 

“Six years now, my king. Since the Allfather fell into the Odinsleep.” 

“Odin’s alive?” He choked out and then cursed himself inwardly for his lack of restraint. 

Heimdall’s eyes betrayed his curiosity and confusion, but he said nothing. Why hadn’t Odin woken up? Frigga had thought this last time that it may be for good, but it had only been three days before he had woken up in time to curse Loki into the Void. Loki needed to know. Also, he was pretty sure he couldn’t sound crazier than he already did. 

“I find myself thinking back to when Father went into the Odinsleep and the events of those following days. What do you recall, Gatekeeper?” 

Was it just Loki, or did Heimdall seem nervous? It took a moment before Loki realized that one of the events of those days was that Heimdall had betrayed him; Loki had stripped him of his title. Had that still occurred? If so, what was he doing here now? 

“After you were pronounced King, you journeyed to Jotunheim to parlay peace with the frost giants. I confess that I had been suspicious of your actions as you were hidden from my eye at that time. I had not known that you had a plan that required the upmost secrecy; though it was a secret I would have loyally kept if you had entrusted me with it, my king.” 

“But it wasn’t to you to question your king, was it?” Loki asked, he would be lying if he had said he was no longer resentful about those early betrayals. 

“No, it was not. I committed treason by disobeying your order to close the Bifrost and sending the Warrior’s Three and the Lady Sif to Midgard to return Thor.” Heimdall’s head was low in shame. This questioning had worked out rather well, Heimdall thought he was being punished in some way by recounting his past shame. But these were all events Loki could have guessed would have stayed the same. He needed to know the rest. 

“And what was the result?” Loki asked harshly. 

“With the use of the Casket, you were able to prevent my treason from stopping your plans and you were able to slay Laufey and obtain a peace with Helblindi, the new king of Jotunheim, my king.” Well that was certainly something. He wondered if this Helblindi was aware of their relation. 

“And in doing so I revealed my parentage. Did you not think that this made your treason just?” 

Heimdall looked up then, but his face was still passive. “Of course not, you may be of Jotunheim but you are still Odinson. Your parentage has only assisted us with the peace with your half-brother, my king.” Loki was getting tired of all these “my kings”. But considering this was far more vocal deference than he had ever seen Heimdall give to Odin, Loki suspected it had been a command of his. 

“And does all of Asgard agree with you on this, Heimdall?” How could they possibly be comfortable with a frost giant on the throne, brother to the King of Jotunheim, no less? It was ridiculous! Impossible! Heimdall frowned and Loki realized he had asked the wrong question. 

“As you and Queen Frigga had decided, no one else in Asgard is aware.” 

“Of course! What I meant to ask was do you believe that all of Asgard would agree with you on this?” Heimdall nodded and Loki breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that he had saved it. 

“That is a difficult question, your majesty. I wouldn’t presume to know the hearts of all of Asgard, for all I can see, my king.” 

“Yes, well. I suppose I didn’t really expect an answer.” Loki muttered, because he knew exactly what that answer was, though he knew Heimdall wouldn’t dare say it. He would never say to his king that of course he’d be removed and likely killed for daring to besmirch the golden throne. But they had flown far from the information Loki needed. 

“And Thor’s part in these events?” Again, he received the furrowed brow. It was another wrong question. 

“On Midgard, of course. He remained loyal, refusing to end the rightly imposed banishment by returning with his comrades. He believed you were the rightful king and swore to prove himself worthy. You allowed the Warriors Three and Lady Sif to return long enough to declare their banishment to Vanaheim.” 

“Yes, but where is Thor now?” He muttered under his breath. While Heimdall had to know that Loki hadn’t intended him to hear the question and certainly did not expect an answer, he still spoke. 

“Thor is where he has been these past six years, on Midgard, fighting for its defense. Just as he has been each week that you have asked me to check on him, my king.” For just a moment, Loki was tempted to blurt the entire situation out to Heimdall. It was obvious the Gatekeeper knew that something was going on, but he was obviously uncomfortable enough with Loki that he wouldn’t just ask outright. No, he would need to get further information elsewhere. 

“Your outside interpretation on these events has been very illuminating, Gatekeeper. Just one more bit of perspective, why are you still here when the other traitors where banished?” 

“I am here because I alone admitted fault. I plead ignorance of your plans and begged your forgiveness. I pledged myself once again to Asgard and your rule and you saw fit to accept my apologies, my king.” Loki suspected his forgiveness had come at great cost to Heimdall if the tightness of the man’s eyes was any sign. He got the uncomfortable feeling that he was a far different king in this timeline than he had tried to be when masquerading as Odin. 

He nodded to Heimdall and dismissed him, lost in his own thoughts. How could Thor possibly still be on Earth? He should have been worthy long ago, it had only taken three days last time. Then it hit him. 

Last time, Thor had almost died to try to save the town he was residing in, as well as his mortal of course, from the Destroyer. This Loki had not sent the Destroyer after his brother. More, it appeared that this Loki had not visited Thor on Earth and done all that lying about Odin being dead and Frigga forbidding his return. So, Thor had refused to come home, having no reason to distrust his brother. 

That rather explained all of the important changes thus far. If he didn’t lie to Thor and send the Destroyer, Thor would have waited on Midgard until he had proved himself worthy. But could it really be that after six years he hadn’t done anything to prove himself? It seemed very unlikely given that Heimdall had explicitly said that Thor was fighting for Midgard’s defense. 

Loki decided it was time to go to his quarters to see what information he could glean for himself. It seemed like too much to hope that he had kept a journal along the way. As he walked through the corridors of the palace he hoped that he had kept his own chambers as King, otherwise he was about to look seriously foolish. 

The more people he passed on the way to his chambers, the more uncomfortable he felt. They all paid appropriate deference, it was more than he could have hoped the last time he had been King, but there was an uneasiness to the deference that concerned him. People darted away just a bit too quickly, eyes wouldn’t meet his own. He found his steps increasing in pace so that he could escape the awkwardness. 

The moment he got on the other side of his doors he leaned against them, eyes closed, breathing a sigh of relief. That was, until he opened his eyes. For a moment, he thought he had gone through the wrong doors, but his signature green was unmistakable. However, instead of his dark woods and understated décor, the room was full of the gleaming gold of Asgard. It was starting to look as if his other self overcompensated heavily for his parentage. 

He rolled his eyes, but there was nothing he could do about it for the moment. He set Gungnir in a stand that seemed designed for it by the door and started divesting himself of his armor. He smiled a small secret smile as he took off his helm, remembering Stark’s joke about overcompensating. 

“If you could only see me now, Stark.” He wondered briefly if Stark’s life had changed at all with these new developments. At least he hadn’t had to fight the Chitari, hadn’t been thrown out a window. 

Throwing these idle thoughts aside, he started digging through his desk. He could find little of true value. There was some research on Hela, which made sense as Odin had never awoken for Loki to ask of her. Though, since Odin was not dead but still in the Odinsleep, she was not yet a threat. 

Cursing himself for a fool for not thinking of it sooner, he then checked his pocket dimension. Sure enough, a journal had been stored there. He grabbed the worn, green leather binding and sat down in his favorite chair to read up on events. Of course, it couldn’t be that simple. His other self hadn’t documented events precisely. It seemed this journal was purely used to document his research on the Infinity Stones. 

The Tesseract was still believed to be on Earth. It seemed that there had been an invasionary force sent to conquer the planet after all. Thanos had found a different puppet to manipulate since Loki had not been available to pluck from the Void. This cat’s-paw too was thwarted by the Midgardians, but Loki was surprised that he had not insisted on the Tesseract being returned to Asgard. 

The Power Stone was believed to be on Xandar. The Soul Stone’s whereabouts were still a mystery. There was more information on the movements of the Time and Mind Stones but this Loki had not been able to discover them. It was likely then that Thanos still had the Mind Stone. Perhaps his chosen general had not been strong enough to wield it. Loki saw no reason why the Time Stone wouldn’t currently be with Dr. Strange. 

The Aether, it seemed, was the one Infinity Stone whose location was assured and that was in Asgard’s vaults. Loki had been able to find it before the Dark Elves and stave off their incursion. Loki was just reading into these events when a knock rang through his chambers. 

“Come in.” Loki said absentmindedly. It was about time for the evening meal anyways and he had no desire to mingle with his current court. He needed to be a bit better informed before risking anything of that sort. After a few moments, he noticed that there was no rattle of dishes and silverware and he looked up. 

His heart stopped. He knew his mouth fell open, his features completely unguarded in surprise. In his wildest dreams, in his most secret heart, he had never dared to hope for this. There she was. His mother was standing before him, a tight unsure smile on her face. 

“Mother,” He breathed, before he dropped the journal to the floor and pulled her into a hug. It was a long moment before her arms wrapped around him in turn. Well, he never was one for physical affection. He could recall only a few occasions as an adult where he had actually initiated physical affection with his mother. 

He pulled away, smiling sheepishly, but she just stared at him in shock. Maybe a bit too much shock for just an unusually effusive display of affection. 

“Mother?” Loki asked. 

“You…you are…you called me, Mother. You haven’t…not since…” Frigga whispered, something broken in her eyes. Loki could feel his eyes widening briefly before he shut his face down behind a mask of indifference. Oh, yes. Loki was doomed to make the same mistakes, just in different ways. 

Loki looked Queen Frigga the eyes. He wanted to pull her into a hug again. His normally perfectly composed mother looked like she was seconds away from falling apart. But as their eyes met, hers flashed with a spark of insight and her expression hardened. 

“You are not my son.” She said coldly, pulling fully out of his arms. Though Loki had a feeling he knew what she was getting at, the words still stung; still ate at that part of his heart that was still so broken from everything that had happened. 

“I don’t understand what you mean; I am Loki. Though, I am not your son by birth. I am well aware.” He said carefully. 

“You are not my Loki.” And the way she said that gave him some hope. Loki was still hers; that was not the issue here. “I may not be the sorcerer my son is, but I was his teacher. Your energy is all wrong.” 

Ah, that was it. Of course, Frigga would notice. His mother, who was so much more perceptive than anyone else about him, about the front he presented to the world. Based on the bits of information he was gleaning, this Loki, while far more successful at staying out of trouble than he had been, was obviously far from settled in his origins. Loki had also begun to get the impression that he was a cold, if not cruel, king. 

While he was still prone to fits of madness, he was far more balanced than he had been six years ago. He had a surety of purpose now that he hadn’t had then. No one else would have noticed but his mother. Loki let out a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding. He suddenly found that his legs had gone watery and he was back to sitting. It wasn’t nerves, it was relief. Frigga already knew; he could confess everything to her. 

“You played your hand with Heimdall; you were obviously probing for information that you weren’t able to obtain otherwise. He grew suspicious and called me in. What have you done with my son?” Frigga stepped toward him, short sword appearing in her hand. 

“Wait!” He held his hands up, but couldn’t seem to stand from the chair. He was just so tired. “I am Loki, but I do have an explanation for why my energy is different. Why I don’t have any memory of the last six years.” 

Frigga paused. She didn’t say anything, she didn’t vanish the sword, she just waited. 

Loki took a deep breath, this wasn’t going to be easy. But as he started talking, it took less and less effort to continue. He found himself sharing things that weren’t necessarily relevant to the story but were relevant to him: his treatment at the hands of the Chitari, his and Thor’s tentative reconciliation, his odd relationship with Tony Stark. As he spoke, he could see his mother’s guard fall until finally at some point she had put away the sword and just sat down to listen. By the end of it, tears were running down her face. Loki’s eyes weren’t exactly dry either as he apologized for his final words to her, for letting her die while he was stuck in his cell. Yes, this Frigga hadn’t experienced it all, but he had to say the words anyways. 

When he finally got it all out, he felt lighter. “I don’t believe I’ve told that much unvarnished truth in…” he thought about it for a moment, “…well…ever.” 

“It’s unbelievable.” His mother murmured. At Loki’s look of hurt, she reiterated. “No, darling, I do believe you. It’s just so different than now.” 

“Who would have believed that not trying to kill my brother, attempting genocide and committing suicide would cause so much to be off?” Loki said darkly. 

Frigga bent over to grasp his hand and he squeezed back. She looked at their hands sadly, and he believed that he might know what she was thinking. 

“Am I really that bad? I mean now?” Loki had been afraid to ask, but he needed to know. 

“I wouldn’t say bad, necessarily. You haven’t done anything I felt the need to oppose strongly. You certainly haven’t committed any crimes that I’m aware of.” Frigga said carefully. 

“So, the other Loki is a terrible king, but still a better person than I am.” Loki almost forgot how it felt just a few minutes ago to feel so light. There was so much he still needed to improve. But with all the benefits of this current timeline, he could do it. He knew he could manage with his mother by his side. 

“I wouldn’t say that. He may not have the great mistakes of your past, but you are obviously trying to atone. You’ve shown a depth of feeling that I haven’t seen, well, since you found out about your heritage. You, well the other you, he grew distant, hardened. I believe that instead of facing his fears and insecurities he walled them off completely. You may have gone mad, but you let yourself feel everything so that you could come out the other side. I had feared that something was to come that was going to break that icy exterior and I believe it would have been far worse.” Loki snorted, not quite believing that anything could have been worse than what he had done. He had made every mistake possible, so that when given another chance he could just make different ones. Was emotionless really worse than insane? 

“What of Thor?” Loki asked. 

“Thor,” The queen sighed. “Thor is working through his own bitterness.” 

Loki chuckled at that and his mother shot him a sharp look that stopped him immediately. 

“Sorry, it’s just hard for me to picture Thor as bitter. He’s the most positive, forgiving person I know.” Loki said, chastened. 

“Different circumstances, I suppose. Thor has been on Midgard for many years now. He was on Midgard almost two years when the Chitari attacked. He begged Asgard for our assistance as he was still only mortal. You refused. You said that it was Midgard’s problem, a mortal problem, that we had no reason to get involved. In the course of those events, Thor was able to prove himself worthy. After the battle, you found out that the Tesseract had been the target. It was only then that you involved yourself in affairs, trying to get the Tesseract moved to Asgard. You invited Thor to come back as well but stipulated that until the Allfather woke and declared it otherwise, you would be the acting King, not Thor. He refused. I believe he felt abandoned by Asgard. I believe he felt that you only cared about the Tesseract, not about him. He’s still there, defending Midgard as a part of an organization designed for that very purpose.” 

Would Loki ever stop betraying his brother? No, he was apparently nothing if not an ass. “Well at least he is with the Avengers; that is something.” 

“I don’t believe they are called that. I believe the organization is called SHIELD.” Frigga corrected him. 

“Yes, SHIELD brought the heroes together to defeat me, or I guess in this time whoever Thanos got to replace me.” 

Frigga thought for a moment, “If that is the case, the word Avengers has never come up in any of Heimdall’s watching. This may be another case of differences.” 

“Do you know what became of the Tesseract?” 

“Loki believed that it was still on Midgard, but SHIELD and Thor deterred him. They said it had been taken. Heimdall could find no information to either support or deny their claim, which made Loki think that with Thor’s help they had somehow managed to hide it from Heimdall’s sight, as he could.” Frigga answered, frowning. 

“That means there are still two Infinity Stones on Earth. I don’t believe any of these events should have changed the location of the Time Stone. Now we are dealing with the Space Stone rather than the Mind Stone which is objectively better.” Loki thought aloud. 

“Why better?” The queen asked, watching him closely. 

“Because the Space Stone allows Thanos convenient travel through the universe. Preventing him from getting that one slows him down significantly. Also, it is something we too could use to our advantage…” He dropped off, realizing the crux of all his plans. 

“But you will need Thor’s help.” Frigga finished for him. 

Loki sighed, “Yes. Unfortunately, with as many things that have changed, the one thing that hasn’t is I always seem to hurt Thor. There is no way I can get his help without telling him what happened.” 

“No, he will need to know that you are not the Loki who abandoned him to Midgard.” 

“Nope, just the one who tried to kill him on multiple occasions.” Loki said with false cheer. 

“Well, maybe you might not want to get into everything all at once.” Frigga admitted. 

“If this Thor is anything like his counterpart, I should be able to lie and withhold information easily.” Loki said with an acrid smile. 

“Stop that! Self-pity isn’t going to help anyone.” His mother chided. 

“I’m sorry, Mother. It’s just, in a lot of ways this feels worse than the previous timeline. It feels just as hopeless.” 

“Find Thor. Explain to him the situation. You always were stronger together, I believe you will be able to figure it out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Loki is king, he never did anything against Earth and Frigga is alive, we just need to get Thor on-board : )


	15. Thunderstruck

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm in Florida and therefore the 20th came 3 hours early so early chapter posting!

It was no more than an hour later that Loki found himself in a rather depressing apartment. If it hadn’t been Heimdall who sent him here, he would have never believed that this was where Thor lived. There was nothing of his brother in this bleak place. The walls were a grubby white, the furniture a grubbier range of beiges. Standing there in his usual black and green leather, gold helm on his head and Gungnir in his hand, Loki had never felt so out of place. 

He was examining a bookshelf that had an odd array of battered paperbacks when the door opened behind him abruptly. Loki whipped around and tried not to look guilty, but likely failed. There staring at him, his face like thunder, was Thor; donning his usual armor and red cape, Mjolnir in hand. For the first time since he could remember, Loki itched to run up and hug his brother. Unlike with his mother, Loki buried the impulse, but his lips twitched up in a fond smile. Thor did not appear to share in his sentiments. 

“What are you doing here?” He asked gruffly, setting his hammer down by the door. 

“Really? Is that how you greet your brother who you haven’t seen in years?” Yes, he was an asshole; he really couldn’t resist. He still felt it was better than Thor’s first words to him after he fell from the Bifrost and Thor pulled him from that plane. Slamming him into the ground and asking immediately for the Tesseract. 

“My apologies, my king. My court manners are a bit rusty.” Thor huffed and sat down on the threadbare couch, eyeing him up and down. 

Loki snorted. He tilted Gungnir over on the bookshelf, took off his helm and vanished it into his pocket dimension before slouching down onto the couch next to Thor. It was surprisingly comfortable. He let out a small sigh of relaxation. He hadn’t really sat comfortably in quite a while. Thor was still staring at him suspiciously, no doubt waiting for the Silvertongue to explain why he was deigning to visit Thor on Midgard. But Loki was in no rush. He was happy to enjoy the moment. Thor was alive, everything else would figure itself out. 

It wasn’t more than a few moments before Thor’s hands started twitching, itching to do something. Thinking of Stark, Loki swatted the hands, but still smiled. Thor looked at him like he had grown a second head. 

“What is this? Why are you here, Loki?” 

“Maybe I just missed my brother.” 

“We are not brothers, Frost Giant.” Thor growled, and Loki felt an icy shock starting from his head and spreading cold down his limbs. He glanced quickly at his hands, thinking for a moment that they must have turned blue with the cold, but they were still Asgardian pale. He turned his face away, not wanting to see the disgust evident in the tone written on his brother’s face. 

This was a development he hadn’t expected. With everything that had happened before, Thor had never denied that they were brothers. True, at one point Thor had said that he thought the brother he knew gone, but even then, Loki was still his brother. He had thought that with not attempting to kill Thor they would be in much better shape to work together. He was, apparently, so very wrong. 

He opened his mouth, but he found that he had no idea what to say, a rarity. If Thor believed they weren’t brothers. If Thor felt about him what they had felt about all frost giants, Loki would never get his cooperation. But, that dark corner of his mind whispered, he still cares about Earth. You can use that. Manipulate him as you do everyone, even yourself. Do you even know your own true wants and feelings? 

Normally, it was a voice he refused to listen to, lately at least. But this wasn’t just about him and Thor. It was about the universe, which Loki unfortunately occupied. It was self-preservation at its best and if it required manipulating his brother? Well, Thor already hated him. 

“Your stance is perfectly clear. I’ll see myself out then. I suppose I’ll have to figure out a way to keep the Tesseract from Thanos all alone.” Loki said as he got up and re-claimed his staff. 

“What do you mean by that? Speak plainly, Loki.” Thor stood up as well, fists clenched. 

“Really, Thor? I’m not sure I’m even capable of that.” Loki scoffed. 

“Do I look to be in a gaming mood?” Thor said and Loki fought not to laugh. 

“I’m here to ascertain the locations of the Infinity Stones that are here on Earth. I thought you might be able to help me.” 

“Earth?” Thor asked and he looked confused. 

“Yes, Earth. You know, the planet we are currently on? Did you hit your head with Mjolnir again, Thor?” That had been amusing, it had almost taken the edge off him not being able to lift it. 

“But you said Earth, not Midgard.” Damn. Thor always was deceptively perceptive when he wanted to be. Such a simple slip up. 

“Is that not what the humans call it? I’m just using the vernacular of…” Loki trailed off remembering how good it had felt to tell Frigga the undistorted truth, he would have to eventually, why not get this over with. He may not be as completely forthcoming with Thor, but really, at this point what could it hurt. “Oh fine!” 

Thor’s face lost a lot of its anger, replaced by confusion. 

“I call it Earth because you call it Earth. Because the Avengers call it Earth. Because the people that I enslaved with the Mind Stone called it that. Because I’ve been on Earth several times. Hel, I even stashed Odin away here when I was pretending to be him and ruling Asgard for years.” 

“Have you gone mad?” Thor asked, thoroughly bemused. 

“Yes! Exactly!” Loki was feeling a little crazy again, actually. This was all complete madness. “I found out I was a frost giant and went completely insane. I tried to kill you, fell into the void, got captured by the Chitari, was tortured by the Other, then manipulated by Thanos, attacked Earth, failed, was imprisoned on Asgard, helped stop some Dark Elves, died, came back, pretended to be Odin, betrayed you on Sakaar, brought Ragnarok to Asgard and got all of our people killed.” 

It was quite a lot to get out in a single breath. Loki panted for a moment while Thor took in this information. 

“But none of that happened…” He said as if he was waiting for the punchline. 

“Nope, it didn’t. Not anymore because I went back in time and changed everything to try to fix it.” 

“And you think all this is you fixing it?” Thor asked dryly. 

“At the moment, I am finding it hard to determine what is better about this.” 

“Well, you are king.” Thor pointed out. 

“And mother is alive. Everything else though…” Loki trailed off realizing that Thor hadn’t said a word against his tale. “You don’t seriously believe me do you?” 

“Of course not! You are the Liesmith and that story is completely absurd. I’m just trying to figure out what you hope to accomplish with all this.” 

“You may be smarter than my Thor. Maybe it’s the mortal’s influence. I suppose you have been able to spend more time with Stark, at least.” 

“Stark?” Thor asked and Loki’s stomach dropped. 

No. 

“Tony Stark?” Loki said tentatively. “Iron Man?” 

“Oh,” Thor said in recognition and Loki breathed a small sigh of relief. “I haven’t heard that name in quite a long time. He and I never interacted much.” 

Loki remembered what his mother had said about there being no Avengers. But Stark had worked with SHIELD right? Loki felt like he remembered that from Barton. 

“Does he not work with SHIELD anymore?” Loki asked. 

“He’s dead.” 

Loki’s ears filled with a dull roar and his face felt numb. He decided he needed to sit down, right now. He barely felt it as he collapsed onto the couch. 

“How?” He asked. A touch of worry chased away some of the frustration on Thor’s face. He sat down too. 

“The Chitari attack on New York. To stop it the World Security Council, they’re in charge of SHIELD, sent a nuclear missile to the city. It killed most everyone who was there. It did destroy the Tesseract at least.” But no, that was wrong. Iron Man had stopped the missile. He had pulled it through the portal and decimated the Chitari fleet. Loki’s brain couldn’t even touch on the news on the Tesseract just yet. 

“Barton? Romanoff? Rogers?” Loki asked. 

“How do you know these names, Loki?” Thor asked, but he seemed to have lost most of his temper because the question was calm. 

“Just answer. Please.” 

“Rogers is still alive, something about the serum. I work with him at SHIELD. Barton and Romanoff are gone.” Thor said, and it felt so wrong to hear him talk about the Avengers, his friends, with such a lack of emotion. 

Loki’s mind raced. So many lives; far more lost than when he had attacked. He thought he was doing the right thing. He thought that he was saving people. Then he remembered a name he had forgotten. 

“Banner!” He yelled suddenly. He too was different, like Rogers, and it was due to radiation; he may have survived. “What about Bruce Banner?” 

Thor looked at him questioningly, “You mean Hulk?” 

“No, not the beast. I mean Banner.” Loki growled angrily. 

“He hasn’t been Banner since that day, only The Hulk. Something about the missile…” 

This was all wrong. He couldn’t do this with just Thor. Hel, he didn’t even have Thor. Why couldn’t he have gone to the right time? 

“It’s my fault. I killed them. All of them.” Of course, he would succeed in killing the Avengers when he wasn’t trying to anymore. That was the wonder of Loki. 

“You’re right.” Thor said, and the rage came back to his face. Loki looked up in surprise. Thor believed him then? But Thor continued. “You could have saved them, all of them. But you refused to help.” 

His brother was talking about current Loki, and he supposed that was true. Responsible twice over, it was probably a record. But Thor apparently felt the need to twist the blade. 

“I don’t know why I believed you would. I knew what you were, a heartless beast focused on petty vengeance. Really it was amazing I never saw it before. Your trickery, your cowardice; you were never a true warrior. You had no honor. When you had finally gotten everything you had ever wanted, what did an entire world matter? What did I matter?” 

It was everything Loki had expected to hear from Thor regarding his origins the first time. He was once again surprised, but this was far worse than he could have imagined. Loki felt like he had more sympathy now for the other Thor, his Thor. The one that had to stand in front of Loki and hear that they weren’t family, who had to see that kind of hate in his former brother’s eyes. 

“I don’t understand. You were so different after your banishment. It’s like none of that happened. You are still arrogant, cruel, what changed?” Loki practically pleaded. 

Thor didn’t answer, not like Loki expected one anyways. Wait, it was the woman, mostly, right? 

“Your woman!” What was her name? He remembered her slapping him when they met; he really had liked her spirit. “Jane! You met her, yes?” 

Thor’s face fell, but it wasn’t anger anymore, it was sorrow. Loki had the sudden feeling he didn’t want to know. 

“She joined SHIELD when I did. Worked with Selvig on the Tesseract project. They both died when the facility collapsed.” No, he really hadn’t wanted to know. 

The death list was tolling: Romanoff, Barton, Selvig, Jane, Banner (in a way) and Tony. Then there were those that could never be. Without Tony there was no Vision, no Spiderman, without the Mind Stone, no Scarlett Witch. Then there was his brother, so irrevocably changed. He leaned over and put his head in his hands trying to tune out the world around him. Utter despair, a feeling he was all too familiar with, washed over him. 

“What is this? Why would you suddenly pretend to care?” Thor said and Loki couldn’t help looking up into his eyes, seeing that hatred again. 

“Do not presume to know my feelings, Brother.” Loki spat, standing up angrily. He cared. He obviously felt far more than this heartless bastard. 

“Do not presume to call me Brother, Jotun.” Thor countered, standing as well. Facing Loki dead on, challenging. 

They seethed, silently staring at each other as if willing the other to finally take the first blow. Loki itched to fight this out as they so often had, but he suspected that this fight would not lead to both of them walking away. 

“This is impossible. I can’t salvage this. We’re worse off than when you were dead. Most of the reason I came back was for that alone…” He cut off at the pale, shocked look on his not-brother’s face. 

“What do you mean when I was dead?” Thor asked, rage apparently forgotten in his surprise. 

“I told you I got all our people killed, you included. I went back in time to solve all that, but it went seriously wrong.” 

“Not for you,” Thor indicated once again, suspiciously. 

“Yes, well I’m generally good at making things work for me. But I can’t stop Thanos on my own and if I don’t…” Loki shuddered at the thought of what Thanos would do to him. Then again... this Thanos didn’t have a personal problem with him. He hadn’t actually failed the Titan this time. 

It was an idea that hadn’t dawned on Loki before now. He could just leave. He could take off to some far corner of the galaxy, away from any of the damage Thanos would wreak. He’d have a 50/50 shot at surviving, but he’s always been lucky when the odds were against him. He was no hero, he didn’t have to put up with any of this. Wait, not even that. The Tesseract was destroyed. No Space Stone meant no universe culling. He could be free and clear. 

It was a light at the end of the tunnel. An out from all this stress, misery and death. He could just walk away and it would all cease to be his problem anymore. Thor could be king, his mother was alive at least. Not for long, a little voice whispered in his head. But he’d had more time with her. He’d been able to apologize, not that this Frigga was the one he should have apologized to, but still. 

“You know what, Thor? Congratulations, you’re King.” Loki thrust Gungnir into a startled Thor’s hands. “The Aether is in the vault. The Time Stone is with a sorcerer here on Earth named Dr. Strange. The Power Stone is on Xandar. Good luck with Thanos; he’s got the Mind Stone.” 

Maybe he would head back to Sakaar. Nothing there should have changed and it was pretty far removed from reality. He’d go back to the plan of taking over. That had to be a much more fun place to rule, right? Or maybe he would give up the ruling gig, it did get quite boring. He could happily be a boy toy for the Grandmaster if he ended up being good enough in bed. 

With a smile, Loki waved at his not-brother, confusion still stark on his face, and teleported away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, I may have a bit of a sadism streak...


	16. The Razor's Edge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're in the home stretch now!

When Loki re-materialized, he wasn’t quite sure where he was. He had just wanted to make a grand exit from Thor, so he had teleported elsewhere on Earth to call the Bifrost down. Then he would take a ship and head to Sakaar. He was almost certain he could talk himself into the Grandmaster’s favor just as quickly as before or use his silvertongue for other things. 

For a moment, Loki thought he was on Svartalfheim. The grey dust and devastation of this place felt very familiar. But the sky was grey behind the gloom and haze, rather than the yellow of the Dark Elf’s homeworld. Instead of the rough, rocky ruins, these structures were clearly Midgardian in nature, metal husks of what had been tall buildings. 

Then Loki looked up. Looming over him was a very familiar edifice. There were no lights, the enormous letters had fallen off, but it was very clearly Stark Tower: the very icon he had used for his invasion, the very location of his utter defeat. 

He could see the platform near the top where he fought his brother, where he threw Stark to his intended death. But of course, none of that had happened. That should have been a good thing, but instead everything had gone so very wrong. He looked around him at the depressing rubble. 

The silence of the place was eerie. There was barely even the sound of wind stirring. New York City had been a massive, bustling metropolis filled with people. Far too many people, he had thought at the time. He had let the Chitari in through the portal and they had killed, but what was that small loss of life compared to all that he would save in his benevolent rule? Loki chuckled darkly. As if he had actually been capable of such at the time. 

Regardless, this entire city was such a small percentage of the life on Earth. The Earth itself was a drop in the pan of the universe. If this was the cost to destroy the Tesseract, some would still say it was worth it. A part of him felt it was worth it. Thanos could never recognize the full might of the Infinity Gauntlet. Loki would be safe on the other side of the universe. If you wanted to get technical about it, Loki had gone back in time to destroy the Tesseract and he had succeeded. 

Sure, he had lost his brother, but that was a small loss. He had barely had Thor in his own time before his untimely death. Loki didn’t care about Romanoff, Banner or Barton. He barely cared about Stark. The Avengers had never existed, but by most accounts, the world was better off. Thanos would come after the Time Stone eventually, but without a large team to fight, the damage would probably be minimal or he would go back to halving life planet by planet as he had before. Either way, he’d kill Strange, no big loss there, and he’d win as much as he could. But he would never be able to wipe out half the life in the universe. 

So why was Loki here? Why was he not already on his way to the land of no responsibilities? Why did he ache with loss? It was all Thor’s fault. If he could have just been reasonable, believed Loki, everything would be fine. Loki would have happily turned the throne over to him and stayed in his role as advisor. They would both have their mother. Hel, they’d possibly even have Odin, if he ever decided to wake up, though Loki was conflicted about whether he wanted that or not. 

Yes, if Loki was disappointed with how this world turned out, he could rest the blame squarely on Thor’s shoulders. There was absolutely nothing else wrong with this turn of events. Everything else was as it should be. Loki sighed, collapsing into the detritus. He was doing a terrible job of lying to himself. That was particularly telling, as he was normally quite good at it. 

He hadn’t really allowed himself to dwell on it overmuch, but he had been so looking forward to seeing Tony again. Loki knew he would be starting over from scratch, but that was almost exciting in itself. He loved how unpredictable Tony could be with his odd way of saying things and his ridiculous nicknames. They would fight, Tony would distrust him for a while, they’d banter and argue and then… Norns, Loki would give anything to even hear Tony call him Lokes or Lokitty again. 

Then there was Banner. He was actually beginning to like Bruce, to see him as more than just a mask that the beast wore. It was amusing to discuss the differences between their science and his magic with him. He was calm, but had a dry humor Loki could appreciate. Loki had no idea if Peter Parker was still living, but he even had a soft spot for the boy’s earnestness. His blatant hero worship of Tony was endearing. 

There was nothing he could do about it now. He’d had his chance and he screwed it all to Hel. Even if he could convince this Strange to let him try again, assuming it was still Strange who had the Time Stone in the first place, there was no Ragnarok for him to change. What was he supposed to do? Go back to when he left the last time? 

“I know I just left here, but you screwed this up royally. So how about we try this again?” But who knew what he would end up with at that point? It could end up even worse, if that was possible. If he went back and stopped himself from interfering in the first place, that would put them right back to where they were before he used the Time Stone in the first place. Even the Avengers weren’t foolish enough to trust him a second time if he came back from all that. Loki didn’t know why he was torturing himself this way. There was nothing he could do. He should just call the Bifrost and leave and never look back. 

“I vow to do all in my power to see that this faith is not in vain.” Loki’s words to the Avengers came back to him, then. He just had to make a vow, didn’t he? Even he couldn’t pretend that he had actually done everything in his power. Loki was a lot of things, but he wasn’t an oathbreaker. He wanted nothing more than to leave this terrible place. 

Instead, Loki found himself teleporting again. 177A Bleecker Street. Dr. Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum. He looked up at the non-descript white and red building. Identifiable only by the very uniquely designed window. Well that, and the fact that it was the only intact building within sight. The Sanctum was the only standing building on a street that didn’t technically exist anymore. With no other ideas, Loki knocked. 

Loki immediately found himself in a room of the Sanctum he had never been in. There was none of the tugging sensation he knew from the Bifrost or the falling portal Strange had used on him last time, it was more akin to his own teleportation. There were glass cases all around him full of interesting items he would have loved to study closer if he hadn’t immediately been distracted by the sorcerer hovering in the air via his cloak. It looked like Loki was getting the intimidation treatment. He rewarded Strange with his shark’s smile. 

“Well met, Dr. Stephen Strange.” Loki said, and was pleased at the slight frown on the sorcerer’s face when he caught the man off guard. 

“I believe we’ll be well met when I know who you are, and more importantly, how you know me. You’re Asgardian?” 

“Close enough. I am Loki, King of Asgard, brother to Thor, who you are likely aware of.” Strange nodded at that. “I know you because we’ve met. Not in this particular timeline, but another.” Loki nodded at Strange’s necklace. 

Strange was immediately on guard. “And what was the context of that meeting?” 

His caginess impressed even Loki. So, the question was, truth or obfuscation? This Strange had no reason to see Loki as a threat. But, as he went into his explanation it might become clear that the other Strange hadn’t trusted him, which would make any lies Loki told up to that point obvious. Telling the truth about his past and the other Strange’s distrust would probably engender more trust than otherwise? Loki decided to just start talking before his brain twisted around that last thought too much. Time travel was very confusing. At least Strange would probably believe he had time traveled in the first place. 

“Well the first time we met, my brother and I were visiting Earth looking for our father. You trapped me in one of your portals where I was perpetually falling.” Loki responded with a sneer. 

Strange on his part, smirked, and folded his arms across his chest. “That doesn’t sound like me. I am generally quite friendly.” 

“Yes, well there was this little incident several years previously where I brought an army of Chitari to Earth as a takeover plot. I was stopped, but you Midgardians appear to hold a grudge.” 

“See, the Chitari I do know; you may have noticed their handiwork all around us. I don’t remember a Loki leading them, though.” Strange said, frowning slightly. 

“That’s because in this particular timeline, I didn’t. When you sent me back in time, I changed a few things.” 

“And went from failing to invade Earth to ruling Asgard. Seemed like that went well for you.” Strange allowed. 

“Indeed, but here’s the thing. I don’t like it. I want to put it back.” Loki said. 

“If I sent you back in time to change it, why would I want to change it back? I'm sure I had a good reason.” 

“Well…” Loki started and Strange rolled his eyes. 

“You didn’t change what you were supposed to, did you?” He asked. 

“And here you were pretending you didn’t know me!” Loki said with a grin. 

“Well I do know of the God of Mischief and Lies, so it wasn’t much of a leap.” 

“I wasn’t supposed to change what happened in New York and actually, my way worked out much better for you all. Stark diverted the bomb to the portal and destroyed the Chitari fleet. New York suffered far less damage. Instead, I was supposed to change a small event on Asgard that would mean that the Tesseract, the Space Stone, was destroyed when Asgard was.” Loki proceeded to explain about Thanos for what felt like the thousandth time. Eventually, there would come a day when Loki would never have to say that name again. When that day came he vowed to get ridiculously drunk. He may never be sober again. 

“There’s no way that I can use the Time Stone to send you to a parallel timeline. It doesn’t work like that.” Dr. Strange argued. 

“Yes, I understand that. What I need to be able to do is go back and keep myself from interfering in the original events.” 

“But then you’ll be back to exactly where you were when you were sent back.” 

“Yes, I am aware.” Loki said through gritted teeth. “Can you please assume I am not an idiot and you’ve explained how the Time Stone works to me before and allow me to finish my statement?” 

“That seems like a bit of a stretch, but I’ll do my best.” Strange said and Loki growled. 

“After I prevent myself from interfering in the original events I would then need a way to either use the rest of my time to pop to the next period of time to change those events or else stay the years it would take to be able to change the event I had originally planned on changing. Keep in mind, I would really rather not do the latter option. There is almost no way I could stay out of things for years. I am just not that patient.” Loki concluded. “However, I suspect that neither of these are possible without my actually wielding the Time Stone, which you won’t allow.” 

“I don’t know you, of course I’m not going to just hand the Time Stone over to you.” Strange scoffed. 

“If it helps, you wouldn’t hand it over to me if you knew me either.” Loki offered. 

“Strangely, no it doesn’t help. However, you are operating under the assumption that I only have the resources that your Strange had, which would be incorrect.” Oh, that niggling, too beautiful sensation of hope. He really didn’t want to be feeling that if it was just going to be crushed. 

Doctor Strange pulled something glowing out of mid-air, similar to how Loki pulled items from his pocket dimension. The tiny object, barely more than a speck, suspended between the sorcerer’s fingers was glowing blue, a very distinct, familiar blue. 

“You have a piece of the Tesseract?” Loki didn’t squeal, but just barely. 

“Well, I am a Stone keeper and do live in New York. I believed it might serve me one of these days. I actually have more than one, so I am willing to part with this particular shard. We can use this to infuse some of the Space Stone’s energy with the spell from the Time Stone. You’ll still only have two hours total to move through time, but you will be able to jump time and location within the timeframe of the original spell.” Strange explained. 

“But why? Why would you agree to this so easily? You have no way to know that what I plan will be better.” 

“How many times do I have to repeat it? I have the Time Stone. I’ve seen far more than you can comprehend, and I know when Time has been altered even if I am not sure how. What’s more you have the residue of my own magic, it’s enough.” Strange paused thinking for a moment before there a small quirk in the corner of his mouth. “Also, the nuke destroyed my favorite deli; I’d really like it back.” 

If Loki had been any other person, he would have grabbed the sorcerer and pulled him into a hug. Instead he settled for a different kind of awkward. 

“When I get back to my time I am going to kiss my Dr. Strange.” Loki said. 

“Why him and not me?” Dr. Strange asked. Realizing the implication of his question when Loki raised an eyebrow at him he continued, “Not that I am asking for one, but he will have no idea why.” 

“And that would be why he gets the kiss. It’s more fun that way.” Also, that Dr. Strange will hate it so much more. 

“You are quite odd.” Strange frowned at him, but handed over the Tesseract shard, which Loki promptly stored in his own pocket dimension. 

“Coming from a guy named Strange? I’ll take it.” Loki said. 

They nodded at one another and Strange prepared the spell. Once again, the world went green. 

 

'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'

 

Once again, the green faded into the gold of Asgard. Loki was really starting to hate the color. Fortunately, he instantly spotted a familiar green and black clad back. Thank the Norns, he had arrived exactly when he meant to. He snuck up behind the figure and quickly put a hand on his right bicep, to stop the inevitable knife, and another over his mouth. 

Sure enough there was a dagger in his hand and the not too distant past-Loki swung around to strike his attacker. When the other Loki saw who it was, his eyes went wide and he instantly dropped his arm, the dagger disappearing. Loki cast a shell of invisibility and sound muffling around them before he dropped his hand from his double’s mouth. 

“Well this can’t be good.” His other self said dryly. 

“Oh, you have no idea.” He responded. “You went back too far. As we speak, our younger self is just now hearing the truth about our origins from Odin.” 

While his other self looked concerned, Loki could see the calculation in his eyes. 

“I’m going to stop you right there,” Current-Loki interrupted. “I tried that, and it fails miserably. You lose Thor; New York gets blown away by a nuclear weapon; Stark dies.” Probably better if he just left out the whole being King, mother being alive, and Tesseract destroyed bits. Make it a bit simpler on himself. 

“So, what do we do? This was our only shot. If I do nothing I’m back to where I started. What should I do differently? What should I say?” 

“It’s too much risk to try to do this differently, just do nothing. I got a different spell from the alternate Strange. All you need to do is stay invisible until your time goes out. I will pop forward to the time I meant to go to in the first place and leave the damn Tesseract where it lies. Then everything should be fine.” 

His double nodded, but he could see the questioning that was going on behind that neutral face. 

“Don’t,” He laughed at the automatic denial on his other self’s lips. “Please, if there is one thing I’ve learned from all this it’s that I even think I am smarter than my future self. Please just trust me. It’s too much to risk, you don’t know if we’ll have another chance.” He debated, momentarily, binding his double; holding him in some spell until his time ran out. 

But any spell Loki set would likely be able to be broken by himself. That added to the distrust it would engender, it wasn’t worth it. He just needed to hope that he was capable of learning a lesson. The fact that it wasn’t a given was something he could work on in the future. The future that hopefully contained his brother. And Tony Stark, if he was going to be honest with himself. 

“I’d suggest heading to a different location while staying invisible, so you don’t have to watch what’s going on.” He said finally. 

His double nodded resolutely and disappeared. Trying not to concentrate on his fear of what his other self might do, Loki pulled out the Tesseract shard. Placing it on his wrist as Strange had told him. He concentrated on the Vault of Asgard, when they were battling Hela. The world went green.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Of course Loki didn't run off! There was no way he was going to let everything suck that much, he's far too selfish for that : )


	17. Goodbye & Good Riddance to Bad Luck

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go...

While his first sight was gold once again, it didn’t take long to see that this was a much different Asgard than the one they had left. Crumbled tiles and char from energy weapons marred the gleaming metal. Yep, Loki was in the right place all right. Unless, of course, this was some different future Asgard he had led to some ruin. He wasn’t quite ready to rule that out. 

He ran to the doors of the Vault and was relieved to see that there were no guards. He hurried through the giant panels of stone and down the steps to the far edge of the cavernous room. He stopped running when he got to where Surtur’s crown was supposed to be held. There it was, exactly as he remembered. He took a few steps down to the next column and heaved a huge sigh of relief. There was the Tesseract, just as it should be. It looked like at least this past-self had listened to him and left things well-enough alone. 

He leaned on the column, waiting for his other self to arrive so they could do the explaining bit yet again. After a few minutes he had to laugh. There was an easier way. One that wouldn’t require him going into the convoluted Time Stone explanation for what felt like the dozenth time. He had only picked up the Tesseract because it had caught his eye. He had otherwise been entirely focused on Surtur’s crown and the Eternal Flame. If Loki stashed the Tesseract elsewhere, it would just be destroyed with Asgard. 

Then again, if that was the case, his other self wouldn’t know to confirm whether the Tesseract was destroyed. It was a conundrum. He was loathe to go through the debate again and risk leaving it up to another past-self to make another stupid mistake. But he also didn’t want to go back into the present without all the information he needed to make a clear plan. 

Of course, this was Loki, and nothing ever went according to plan. Who should come running in, but himself? It was rather amusing to see a far more frantic and beaten version of him run past and then suddenly stop and walk backwards until they were face to face. 

“I didn’t make you.” Past-Loki said uncertainly. 

“Nope. I’ve done this explanation way too many times by now, so I’m going to keep it brief. I used the Time Stone to travel back several days in the past to keep you from taking the Tesseract.” He recognized that hungry gleam in his own eyes. “If you decide to take it, everyone on that ship currently escaping Asgard will die, including Thor. And it will be all your fault.” 

“Thanos?” The other Loki sighed. At least he had this much to work with. 

“Yes. He can somehow detect the Tesseract’s signature, even within our pocket dimension. There’s no way to hide it. He uses it to take the Mind Stone, to try to take the Time Stone. The Space Stone needs to be destroyed with Asgard.” 

“But will that even destroy an Infinity Stone?” Loki countered. “If we have it and I at least know Thanos is coming...” 

“A nuclear missile destroyed the Tesseract.” At the other Loki’s confused look, he appended his statement. “It’s a long story and I don’t have that much time. But I believe it will be destroyed and that is a much lower risk alternative than just trying to keep it from Thanos.” 

“But...” The past-Loki looked to the glowing blue of the cube, so gorgeous and so powerful. 

“I know.” Loki agreed. Giving up that much power, destroying it even, was a painful thought. There was so much Loki could do with it. But he couldn’t keep it from Thanos. “But somewhere inside you, you aren’t all monster. It isn’t worth the cost.” 

“Which is an interesting statement considering I’m about to start Ragnarok.” 

“Thor was right, it’s the people that matter. Anyways, you gave up on this place a long time ago.” Loki grinned. “Plus, it was Thor’s idea. If it all goes wrong, you can just blame him.” 

His other self grinned back at him. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to destroy Asgard.” 

Loki nodded to him and watched as he once again grabbed Surtur’s Crown. He was just about to put it into the Eternal Flame, when the world went green. 

 

'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'

 

Loki could have cried with relief when the green washed away and he wasn’t assaulted by gold. Instead, it was more of a dull gunmetal grey, but it was the most beautiful color he had ever seen. He was in the quarters he had taken for himself on the Statesman. Various pieces of his armor, his cape and other knickknacks were scattered about the room. The bed was rumpled and there were towels on the bathroom floor. Everything seemed to indicate they had been on the ship for days now. So far so good. 

The big question now was whether the Tesseract had been destroyed or not. This time, he went straight to his pocket dimension. Instead of a glowing blue cube, there was a note. He felt a squeeze of his heart in anticipation and pulled out the slip of paper. 

 

> Me, 
> 
>  
> 
> I stayed back from rejoining the ship until I could survey the ruins. I found remnants of the Tesseract’s energy, but it was fading quickly. I feel like it is safe to say that it has been destroyed. I figure you’re going to be taking the reins soon enough, so it might comfort you to have the confirmation since we’ll likely be too far from Asgard for you to check. 
> 
> Also, I know you won't, but you should really tell Thor about all this. He should know how much he owes us. You know we’ll need that goodwill somewhere down the line. Since I know who has the Time Stone, it’s not a stretch to guess that you’re headed to Earth. Thor has some serious stones bringing you back there. Please get back at that two-bit, arrogant ass of a sorcerer for me. 
> 
>  
> 
> -Me 

 

Loki laughed. He was pretty sure the kiss he had planned was a very good start. Without thinking about it, he dropped to the bed; he lay down arms out and just stared at the ceiling for a moment. He felt like he could sleep for a week. Which was probably all for the good because he was stuck on this ship for months and was bound to get antsy. He was just nodding off when a knock at his door shook him abruptly awake. 

“Go away.” He shouted. 

“It’s Thor.” Came the most beautiful voice Loki had heard in a long while. Not that he’d ever let Thor know. 

“Ok, then. Go away, Thor.” Loki responded. He didn’t mean a word of it. 

The door opened, and his brother walked in. Loki moved up so that he was leaning on his elbows, appraising the Thunder God. Shorn blonde hair, one eye, battered armor, yep that was his current brother, the right brother. Screw it. 

Loki got up from the bed and pulled Thor into a hug. His brother stood stiff with surprise for a moment before folding his arms around the smaller man. 

“Is everything ok, Brother?” Thor asked, his voice low with concern. 

“You promised me a hug earlier,” Loki responded. “But you never followed through.” 

“Well, when I said that I thought you weren’t actually here. Then you were, and I figured if I tried it, you would stab me.” Thor responded, perfectly rationally. Then added, “again.” 

Loki pulled away from the hug. “You understand me far better than I give you credit for.” Loki said. “I’d suggest not attempting this in the future. You wouldn’t like the outcome.” 

“Bloody, no doubt.” Thor grunted, but he looked pleased. “So, what is this?” 

“It has been a very long few days, that’s all.” Loki sighed and collapsed on his bed again. 

“Are you still concerned about heading to Earth?” Thor asked sitting down on the bed beside him. 

“Actually, Brother.” Loki said. "I feel like everything is going to work out fine." 

 

# The End

# 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are, at the end! I know I kind of leave it hanging, and we basically end where we started, but I couldn't resist the symmetry. Fortunately, you already know that there is a sequel. I'm about 7 chapters in so far and it is feeling like it is going to be far longer than Time's Up. I'll probably move the schedule to twice a week, rather than every other day since I have far less of this one done than when I started posting Time's Up. But I hope you all enjoyed this and I hope you all stick around for the next time!
> 
> Thank you all again! Your comments have made my day time and time again!


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